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Wife

The Intensely Witty and Empathetic Novel from the Author of The Exhibitionist

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Wife

By: Charlotte Mendelson
Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
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About this listen

'Crackles with female fire and fury' – The Guardian
'A bravura portrait of a marriage in meltdown' – The Observer
'Fast and furious' – The Sunday Times

Wife, the gripping new novel from the prize-winning author of The Exhibitionist, is a nail-biting portrait of the beginning - and the end - of a rollercoaster marriage.

When Zoe Stamper first catches the eye of the sophisticated Dr Penny Cartwright, she thinks her life has changed for the better. Entering into a relationship with an older woman introduces Zoe to a world she previously thought unreachable. Their love story begins.

Now married with two children, Zoe is sick of living a lie. On the outside she's a loving and beloved wife, but inside she's a nervous wreck. She knows she must escape this secret darkness, but how?

Moving between the beginning and the end of Zoe's marriage, Wife brilliantly conveys the horror, humour and suspense of a midlife bid for freedom.

'A terrific panic attack of a novel' – i newspaper
'Lacerating' – Financial Times
'Unbearably brilliant' – Nigella Lawson
'A gift to the reader . . . Irresistible' – Amy Bloom, bestselling author of In Love
'Compelling' – Glamour
'Truly radical' – The Spectator

 Divorce & Separation Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Parenting & Families Relationships

Critic Reviews

Poleaxed after finishing this. Charlotte Mendelson at her soul-searing best. Narcissistic monsters and suffocating families are quite the specialty of hers, but Wife is just unbearably brilliant (Nigella Lawson, bestselling author of Cook, Eat, Repeat)
Wife is a gift to the reader in its gimlet-eyed and heartfelt observations, its irresistible sentences and its compassionate, sometimes surgical storytelling. Charlotte Mendelson tells the truth: slant, suspect, hidden, hard – and often hilarious (Amy Bloom, bestselling author of In Love)
'This is a love story,' Zoe tells the reader, and it is, profoundly so, in the end. But I'll remember it more as a thriller, for the way Mendelson manages to make what looks from the outside like a sad but unremarkable day – packing, Tube journeys – feel like sweaty offcuts from The Bourne Identity . . . God, you want Zoe to get away. Does she? Better read the book
A family saga of great insight, with another magnificently grotesque villain at its heart
A clever, lacerating account of coercive control . . . a finely executed novel
A deeply engaging exploration of a troubling and passionate affair, motherhood and personal transformation . . . Mendelson's vibrant characters and richly detailed narrative provide a captivating look at the complexities of love and self-discovery. Compelling.
Mendelson is an extraordinary writer . . . Her characters are whole and complex, her tone crisp and familiar, her prose uncluttered and full of delightfully bitchy moments
Mendelson revels in the messiness of familial relationships, especially the ugly dramas that take place behind closed doors
A terrific panic attack of a novel, a domestic horror story . . . Mendelson's particular triumph is that this story is – perversely, incredibly – enjoyable, the kind of book to be wolfed down in a single excruciating sitting
The heart of this novel is how Mendelson portrays, with some comedy alongside the horror, the disintegration of a marriage. The claustrophobic bullying is so well done that I found it nauseating. What is truly radical about Wife, however, is its portrayal of a contemporary lesbian couple behaving as dysfunctionally as a straight one might
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