Modern Romance

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

An engaging look at the often head-scratching, frequently infuriating mating behaviors that shape our love lives.   Refinery 29

A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from Aziz Ansari, the star of Master of None and one of this generation s sharpest comedic voices

At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated?

Some of our problems are unique to our time.  Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?   Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?! My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who s Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?  

But the transformation of our romantic lives can t be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate.

For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up withNYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and