The Wife: A Novel (Paperback)
$16.00
On Our Shelves Now
Staff Reviews
This certainly sparks fire to the kindling “we women” gather in
keeping our families warm! Joan has married Joe Castleman, the English
professor with whom she had an affair as a freshman at Smith. The two
strike a devil’s bargain–one that stands to preserve their union.
Forty-five years later they’re traveling to Finland where he’s to
receive the Helsinki prize for his latest novel. As they cross the
Atlantic Joan tells us she is ready to call it quits and fills in the
blanks for us readers.
This is exceptional writing and provides many themes for discussion, particularly gender roles/rules. Very thought-provoking.
— Sue B. - Anderson's Bookshop NapervilleDescription
Now a major motion picture starring Glenn Close in her Golden Globe–winning role!
One of bestselling author Meg Wolitzer’s most beloved books—an “acerbically funny” (Entertainment Weekly) and “intelligent…portrait of deception” (The New York Times).
The Wife is the story of the long and stormy marriage between a world-famous novelist, Joe Castleman, and his wife Joan, and the secret they’ve kept for decades. The novel opens just as Joe is about to receive a prestigious international award, The Helsinki Prize, to honor his career as one of America’s preeminent novelists. Joan, who has spent forty years subjugating her own literary talents to fan the flames of his career, finally decides to stop.
Important and ambitious, The Wife is a sharp-eyed and compulsively readable story about a woman forced to confront the sacrifices she’s made in order to achieve the life she thought she wanted. “A rollicking, perfectly pitched triumph…Wolitzer’s talent for comedy of manners reaches a heady high” (Los Angeles Times), in this wise and candid look at the choices all men and women make—in marriage, work, and life.
About the Author
Meg Wolitzer’s novels include The Female Persuasion; Sleepwalking; This Is Your Life; Surrender, Dorothy; and The Position. She lives in New York City.
Praise For…
Los Angeles Times A rollicking, perfectly pitched triumph...Wolitzer's talent for comedy of manners reaches a heady high.
Entertainment Weekly Acerbically funny...Wolitzer keeps us guessing right up until the gut-wrenching twist of a finale.
The Washington Post To say that The Wife is Wolitzer's most ambitious novel to date is an understatement. This important book introduces another side of a writer we thought we knew: Never before has she written so feverishly, so courageously.
The New York Times Book Review Deploys a calm, seamless humor...Rage might be the signature emotion of the powerless, but in Wolitzer's hands, rage is also very funny.