The Wife

Joan Castleman has spent four decades as the devoted wife of Joe Castleman, a celebrated American novelist. As they fly to Helsinki for Joe to accept a prestigious literary prize, Joan resolves to end the marriage. Looking back across their life together, from the affair that began it to the compromises that built Joe's reputation, Joan reveals the secret at the heart of their arrangement and the talent and ambition she set aside to keep his career aloft. The book is a sharp, slow-burn indictment of the bargains women make inside marriages.