Wife

Wife by Charlotte Mendelson is heartbreaking and funny, profound and gripping, as it takes the reader from the end of a relationship to its beginning, and back again.

'Charlotte Mendelson at her soul-searing best . . . unbearably brilliant' – Nigella Lawson, TV cook and bestselling author of Eat, Cook, Repeat

When Zoe moves in with Penny, their relationship looks perfect; after all, everyone wants a wife. But this is the story of how love can become a disaster . . .

Zoe Stamper, junior researcher in Ancient Greek Tragedy, meets fellow academic Dr Penny Cartwright at a faculty flute recital. Dr Cartwright seems impossibly glamorous to Zoe, who is, after all, several rungs down the academic pecking order - and a nervous ingénue as far as Penny’s sophisticated circle is concerned. But Penny leaves Zoe a cryptic note, and a passionate affair ensues.

Once Penny confesses all to her live-in lover, Justine, their happiness seems assured. But there is something else Penny needs as badly in her life as Zoe’s adoration, and thus the beginning of their affair might also have signalled its end.

'Mendelson is a master of the literary monster' – The Sunday Times

'A bravura portrait of a marriage in meltdown' – The Observer

'A clever, lacerating account of coercive control' – Financial Times