Four Wives - Hardcover

Walker, Wendy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312367716 ISBN 13: 9780312367718

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2008

Synopsis

In Wendy Walker's brilliant debut, the lives of four wives and mothers intertwine and collide in a tale of suburban angst among outrageous wealth.   On the outside, it appears as though Love Welsh, Marie Passetti, Gayle Beck and Janie Kirk lead enviable lives, with marriages to handsome, successful men; bright, happy children; and homes right out of Architectural Digest. But in the wealthy suburb of Hunting Ridge, appearances mask a deeper truth: These four wives are anything but perfect. As they try to maintain a façade of bliss, behind closed doors they each face their own crises-infidelity, dissatisfaction, self-doubt. As springtime draws to an end, doors are both opened and closed and the women come face to face with the most difficult and heartbreaking challenge of their lives-to reconcile their innermost desires with the lives that each of them has chosen.    Four Wives shares a peek beyond the perfectly manicured lawns of Hunting Ridge—exposing a world as troubled as it is blessed.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Take a peek beyond the perfectly-manicured lawns of Hunting Ridge. For four wives who live there, all is not as it seems...

On the outside, Love Welsh, Marie Passeti, Gayle Beck and Janie Kirk seem to have it all— marriages to successful men, beautiful children, and the kind of affluence most people dream of. But in their gilded suburb, appearances may mask deeper truths. Behind the façade of contentment, each of these women is confronting her own crisis.

While fiercely devoted to her three young children, former child prodigy Love can't seem to shake the demons that ended her career. Her neighbor Marie, despite her successful balancing act of mother and part-time divorce attorney, struggles with a troubling case and her feelings for the young intern who fawns over her expertise. In a mansion across town, Gayle enjoys the queen-bee social status that “old money” guarantees, but feels isolated by the dark secrets her fortunes force her to keep. Though she is envied and loathed for her exceptional beauty and expert homemaking, Janie is losing the battle to remain satisfied in a passionless marriage, and falls into an unlikely affair.

As the women plan a charity gala, their not-so-perfect lives are slowly exposed. And as springtime draws to a close, each woman comes face to face with the most difficult challenge of all: reconciling her innermost desires with the path that she has chosen.

Four Wives throws open the doors of suburban dissatisfaction among outrageous wealth, exposing a world that is as troubled as it is blessed.

From the Back Cover:

People are talking about Four Wives...“Four Wives is a brilliantly clever and accurate study in domestic discontentment. Acutely well-observed and suspenseful, it's a stunning reflection of life in an affluent American suburb, where the women seem to have everything...except happiness. A great read.”
–Jane Green, author of Swapping Lives “Wendy Walker writes a cleverly woven, sexy debut that is a fascinating peek inside the gilded cages of suburban matrimony, where wives' envy for the perfect life is as green as the manicured lawns and golf tees they are widowed for, revealing the fiery restlessness beneath the placid permasmiles.  A true page-turner treat.”
–Jill Kargman, author of Momzillas and co-author of The Right Address 

“A fascinating read. Wendy Walker delivers a blistering dissection of modern suburban marriage. I couldn't put it down.”
–Danielle Ganek, author of Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0312367716
• ISBN 13: 9780312367718
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368