Charlotte Mendelson for Wife

'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 & Bliss

Join us for an evening with bookseller-beloved Charlotte Mendelson to celebrate her latest novel, Wife. The Exhibitionist was a fan favourite in the bookshop, capturing many readers with its brilliance, and as a result, became a Times, Guardian, and Good Housekeeping book of 2022. We're over the moon to host Charlotte in Bath for this fabulous and highly anticipated novel.

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.