Synopsis
'Crackles with female fire and fury' – The Guardian
'A bravura portrait of a marriage in meltdown' – The Observer
'Fast and furious' – The Sunday Times
Discover the bitingly witty new novel from the prize-winning author of The Exhibitionist, Charlotte Mendelson.
Dr Penny Cartwright is everything that Zoe Stamper is not: glamorous, sophisticated and openly gay. When they begin a passionate affair, a lifetime of wedded bliss seems within Zoe’s grasp. But this is not a love story. It’s the story of how love can bring about disaster . . .
'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
