Remember the kitchen god's wife? She wound up as the title of a bestselling novel back in 1991. A couple of years later, Ahab's wife found similar fame, followed shortly by the pilot's wife. Then the time traveler's wife came along, and things were quiet for a while, until the zookeeper's wife and the senator's wife shook things up. Books with the word “wife” in the title seem to sell well, and this season brings a new crop of them.
| The 19th Wife: A Novelby David Ebershoff (Random, Aug.) | Novel About My Wifeby Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, Aug.) | American Wife: A Novelby Curtis Sittenfeld (Random, Sept.) | The Professors' Wives' Clubby Joanne Rendell (NAL Accent, Sept.) | |
| Wife: | ||||
| Ann Eliza Young, 19th wife of Brigham Young; and a contemporary Mormon 19th wife. | Ann, an Australian in London pregnant with her first child | Alice Blackwell, whose husband becomes the U.S. president | Faculty wives Mary, Sofia, Ashleigh and Hanna | |
| Publisher's pitch: | ||||
| “Epic historical fiction” and “modern murder mystery.” | A “gorgeous young wife's descent into madness.” | “A private, self-conscious girl [is] thrust into the public glare.” | “Each [woman has] a scandalous secret.” | |
| Wives who'll identify: | ||||
| Those who can't get enough of the HBO series Big Love | Expats living abroad, literary thriller fans | Ones who love gossip as much as high-brow lit | Peyton Place fans looking for a light read | |
