The Professors' Wives' Club - Softcover

Rendell, Joanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451224914 ISBN 13: 9780451224910

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2008

Synopsis

A debut novel about the intertwining lives of college faculty wives.

Nestled among Manhattan University?s faculty housing, there is a garden where four women will meet?each with a scandalous secret that could upset their lives, destroy their families, and rock the prestigious university to its very core.

With its maple trees, iron gate, and fence laced with honeysuckle, Manhattan U?s garden offers faculty wives Mary, Sofia, Ashleigh, and Hannah much needed refuge from their problems. But as Mary?s husband, the power-hungry dean, plans to demolish their beloved garden, these four women will discover a surprising secret about a lost Edgar Allan Poe manuscript?and realize they must find the courage to stand up for their passions, dreams, and desires.

About this title

About the Author

Joanne Rendell was born and raised in the UK. She hasa Ph.D. in literature and is married to an NYU professor.

Reviews

This tepid debut novel follows four women as they band together to save a garden from being gobbled up by an expanding college campus. Mary, a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and professor; Hannah, an MFA student whose husband becomes increasingly distant; Sofia, a young mother who gave up her previous life as a powerful Hollywood agent; and Ashleigh, who is afraid to reveal her lesbian relationship to her conservative senator father, all share a love of the small garden nestled next to Manhattan University's faculty housing, and as they organize to stop the imminent excavation, they form friendships and make major changes in their lives. There isn't anything you haven't seen before in here, but Rendell does a fine job of following the formula. (Sept.)
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The urban campus of Manhattan University harbors a fenced garden that serves as an oasis for four women. The garden is accessible by key only to the residents of the faculty housing that surrounds it. Married to a professor, Sofia had a successful career of her own but gave it all up to be a stay-at-home mom. Ashleigh is a lawyer in her family’s firm and holds a secret that could curtail her politician father’s career. Hannah is an artist married to another faculty member; her secret could threaten her marriage. And Mary, a faculty member in her own right, lives a lie as she endures a toxic marriage to the dean, who wants to bulldoze the garden and put in a parking lot. These four women are not acquainted but soon will become sisters-in-arms as they fight for their garden and then for each other. Alternately amusing and serious, with a little literary mystery thrown in for good measure, Rendell’s smart and pleasing tale of friendship and self-actualization has broad appeal. --Maria Hatton

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451224914
• ISBN 13: 9780451224910
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352