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

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 ingenue 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 . . .

Wife by Charlotte Mendelson is a beautifully observed and coruscating novel about the joys of passionate love and motherhood, and those left behind in its wake when passion curdles. It is heartbreaking and funny, profound and gripping, as it takes the reader from the end of a relationship to its beginning, and back again.

‘A bravura portrait of a marriage in meltdown’ – The Guardian

‘A clever, lacerating account of coercive control . . . a finely executed novel’ – Financial Times

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

Publisher Review

[A] devastating treat of a novel: funny, furious, dark and delicious — Sarah Waters, bestselling author of Fingersmith, on The Exhibitionist A delicious, heartbreaking family snapshot . . . Fabulously written and utterly compelling — Marian Keyes, bestselling author of Grown Ups, on The Exhibitionist It takes the most ferocious intelligence, skill and a deep reservoir of sadness to write a novel as funny as this. I adored it — Meg Mason, bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss, on The Exhibitionist One of the funniest writers in Britain . . . A precision of observation that made me laugh frequently and smile when I wasn’t laughing — The Guardian on The Exhibitionist Mendelson is a master at family drama . . . Exhilarating — The Times on The Exhibtionist Exotic, magnificent and just a little bit sinister . . . Almost English has been longlisted for this year’s Booker; it deserves to win for the quality of the writing alone — The Observer on Almost English Fast-paced and engaging . . . brilliant . . . touching and true — Financial Times on When We Were Bad This magnificently peppery and stylishly written book summons up with enormous vigour a wholly accurate picture of the face that is life in a troubled academic family. It is utterly engrossing, very funny and wonderfully bitchy — The Sunday Times on Daughters of Jerusalem