"Juliet, Naked" by Nick Hornby

No, there aren't any naked women in "Juliet, Naked" by British author, essayist, songwriter and screenwriter Nick Hornby.  Annie is 39 years old living in a small village with Duncan, a nerdy professor. They've been in a 15 year relationship that has fallen into boring platonic sameness.  Then there's the reclusive Tucker Crowe, an aging Dylanesque rocker whose real life doesn't live up to or deserve Duncan's obsessive adoration.  

Hornby creates honest, flawed but likable characters and is funny with a slightly sardonic wit.  As a reviewer on Goodreads said, Juliet, Naked is a reflective follow-up to one of Hornby's most famous novels, High Fidelity.  

There is something deceptively simple about Hornby's prose.  He captures his characters emotions so you feel you know these people and can relate to them (even though sometimes they seem a little eccentric). 

Annie is telling her therapist, Malcolm, that she doesn't want to "be quite content with my unhappy, boring, frustrating marriage.  I want more....Malcolm stared hard at the carpet, which was presumably where this conundrum had ended up somehow.  "Well" he said. "I'm not sure that's it."  "So what is it? If it's not that?"  "You said you don't want to be quite content."  "Yes. With. A. Rubbish. Life."  She said it as if he were deaf...." "But people who are quite content don't have a rubbish life," he said."

Get to know these characters and all their idiosyncrasies.  Find out what happens to Annie when she decides to leave Duncan. You will find yourself engrossed.  Then try Nick Hornby's other books which include High Fidelity, About A Boy, Fever Pitch and Slam.