Skin Contact

By: Elisa Faison

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Earl T. Kim, Ferdelle Capistrano, Gail Shalan, Lisa Flanagan, Marni Penning, Samara Naeymi, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Vanessa Moyen

'Sexy and self-assured, Skin Contact is irresistible'
Ada Calhoun, author of Crush

Unmoored by her mother's sudden death, Frances has never felt so diminished, so lost, or so old. She's painfully aware that strangers no longer look at her the same way - and that she's now, at thirty-two, older than the great aunt for whom she was named, who was killed in the seventies under mysterious circumstances involving an extramarital affair.

Her husband, Ben, will do anything to help Frances regain her vivacity and sense of purpose. So when Frances suggests that they open their marriage, Ben complies.

Over the next two years, they explore their sexualities and latent kinks; they navigate jealousy, betrayal, desire, and obsession; they defend their choices - and their new identities - to confused friends. They do all of this together, as a team. But when Ben finds himself falling in love with another woman, just as Frances realizes she's ready to settle down and have a baby, they are forced to confront the consequences of their experiment.©2026 Elisa Faison (P)2026 Hachette Book Group USA

Critic reviews

Elisa Faison's enthralling and unflinching Skin Contact gives us an intimate view of an intricately bound cast of characters, finding the hidden places where the real story lies. Shifting between the emptiness and uncertainty of loss along with the frightening and enthralling sensation of discovery, Faison has crafted a story that surprises us with its honesty, its passion, and its intensity. (Kevin Wilson, author of NOTHING TO SEE HERE)

Sexy and self-assured, Skin Contact is irresistible. While exploring the boundaries of desire and fidelity, Elisa Faison's characters ask big questions about the choices we make and how to negotiate what's beyond our control (Ada Calhoun, author of CRUSH)

A book that's all hot and bothered, examining intimacy, fidelity, sexuality and motherhood with a backdrop of grief. It explores a network of desire, with peripheral characters intercepting the narrative to take centre stage as they share their own slice of sexy, complicated life in chapters that feel akin to short stories. Deeply readable, this will be the hottest sluttiest book of the summer (Alice Slater, author of LET THE BAD TIMES ROLL)

A grieving woman opens her marriage after the death of her mother. It goes mostly well - until her husband falls in love with someone else (Novels Everyone Will Be Reading This Summer)

Skin Contact is acute and witty on female desire (5 best debut novels)

At the outset of this funny and pensive novel, Frances, a married woman, tells her husband, Ben, that she "sort of" has a crush on a waitress-thereby kicking off their open marriage. She and Ben soon discover the joys of sleeping with other people, both together and separately. For Frances, who is thirty, the experiment is, at first, a way to help her cope with the grief of losing her mother. Then, just as she is realizing that she might want to have a child, Ben falls in love with another woman. Torn between a life that might seem "frivolous" and one that feels "flattening," the couple have to decide what, for them, is the right path

A smart, involving debut written with an empathy and insight that ensures it never feels passé . . . Faison's narrative moves freely in time, and between perspectives, as she pursues themes including ageing, motherhood and loss, taking in everything from the marital sacrifices made by earlier generations to the sensual deprivation imposed by lockdowns during Covid

A fresh take on making marriage work in the modern age . . . Told through a variety of perspectives, readers gain a front-row seat to the beginning of Frances and Ben's relationship, while also hearing from some of the lovers they bring into their current dynamic. For fans of The Fates and Furies, Gunk or Perfection, this multi-narrative is one not to miss