Wife
01 May 2025Synopsis
'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
Details
01 May 2025
9781529052831Reviews
A brilliant and blackly comic study of narcissistic dysfunction . . . Gimlet-eyed, sharp-tongued, blisteringly precise, it crackles with female fire and furyThe Guardian
A family saga of great insight, with another magnificently grotesque villain at its heartThe Observer
'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.The Sunday Times
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 brilliantNigella Lawson, bestselling author of Cook, Eat, Repeat
