The Wife
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  • Published: 1 October 2004
  • ISBN: 9780099478195
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $24.99

The Wife

Formats & editions
EBook
22 Jan 2015
Audiobook
6 Sep 2018
Paperback
26 Jul 2018
Paperback
1 Oct 2004
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Sharp witty tale about the sexual politics of a marriage from New York Times bestseller and author of the acclaimed The Interestings

A Husband. A Wife. Their Secret

Joe and Joan Castleman are en route to Helsinki. Joe is thinking about the prestigious literary prize he will receive there, while Joan is plotting how to leave him. For too long she has played the role of supportive wife, turning a blind eye to his misdemeanours, whilst quietly being the keystone of his success. But behind the compromises, the disappointment and disillusionment there lies a secret…
  • Published: 1 October 2004
  • ISBN: 9780099478195
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

Meg Wolitzer

Meg Wolitzer is the author of several acclaimed novels, including The Uncoupling (‘tingles with playfulness and wicked observation’ Independent), The Wife (‘has you howling with recognition’ Allison Pearson), The Position (‘one of the best and most human books I’ve read all year’ Erica Wagner) and The Ten-Year Nap (‘as incisive and pitiless and clear-eyed a chronicler of female-male tandems as Philip Roth or John Updike' Chicago Tribune). Most recently, The Interestings was a New York Times bestseller. She lives in New York City.

portrait photo of Meg Wolitzer

Also by Meg Wolitzer

The Female Persuasion
The Interestings
The Uncoupling
The Ten-Year Nap
The Position
See all

Praise for The Wife

The wife was published less than a decade ago, but I say it is already a classic - and I have no idea why it's author remains so less well known than her US compatriots, Alison Lurie and Lorrie Moore.

Observer

Hilarious and touching

Erica Wagner, The Times

With a great lightness of touch, Wolitzer's novel satirises American literary circles of the Seventies and Eighties and traces the generation of wives who poured their own creative energies into "stoking the fires" of their husbands' reputations.

Emma Hagestadt, Independent

Meg Wolitzer is so funny and clever she should be bottled and sold as tonic

Allison Pearson

A triumph of tone and observation, The Wife is a blithe, brilliant take on sexual politics

Lorrie Moore
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