After twenty years of marriage, Rami discovers that her husband has been living a double--or rather, a quintuple--life. Tony, a senior police officer in Maputo, has apparently been supporting four other families for many years. Rami remains calm in the face of her husband's duplicity and plots to make an honest man out of him. After Tony is forced to marry the four other women--as well as an additional lover--according to polygamist custom, the rival lovers join together to declare their voices and demand their rights. In this brilliantly funny and feverishly scathing critique, a major work from Mozambique's first published female novelist, Paulina Chiziane explores her country's traditional culture, its values and hypocrisy, and the subjection of women the world over.
Kerry Jackson never thought her dream marriage, which began when her Morehouse lover propsed on a picture-perfect bridge over a lavish pool filled with rose petals and floating candles, could be torn apart by a harmless email. But 10 years later her husband Jamison is having an affair and a pregnant Kerry finds herself in her car at five in the morning, dead set on busting the secret romance. Angry, confused and in the back seat of a police car she realises that she needs a new plan for her life and her unborn child...fast.
'Pulse-pounding, page-turning, absolutely can't put it down.' Lisa Gardner THE OUTSTANDING THRILLER FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ERICA SPINDLER What have readers been saying about The First Wife? 'This is a must read. Truly outstanding as always.' Amazon reviewer, 5***** 'A real page turner that kept me guessing throughout.' Amazon reviewer, 5***** 'Spindler fans should relish this latest release, as should anybody looking for a first class thriller!' Amazon reviewer, 5***** Perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Karen Rose, Erica Spindler is master of classic crime fiction and the twist you won't see coming. Despite the ten-year age gap and the differences in their backgrounds, Bailey was meant to be with Logan - she's sure of it. It's natural that they should marry as soon as they can. But when Logan brings Bailey home to his magnificent estate on ninety wooded acres, her dreams of happily-ever-after begin to unravel. She can't ignore the rumours about what happened to Logan's first wife and then when a local woman goes missing, all signs point to her husband. Has Bailey made a terrible mistake trusting Logan? What happened to his first wife? Suddenly Bailey is facing an impossible decision: should she believe what everyone is saying, or should she bet her life on the man she loves, but hardly knows? Praise for Erica Spindler: 'Pulse-pounding, page-turning, absolutely can't put it down.' Lisa Gardner 'Neat, taut and written with panache that forces you to turn each page.' Daily Mail 'I can put Spindler on my growing list of favourite crime-fiction authors.' Evening Standard 'Has enough twists to keep you riveted right to the final page.' Image
'If you don't take me, I'm going to jump into the lake; I swear I will. Either you're going to marry me, or I'll jump!' Alexander Herzog, a young writer, goes to Vienna to escape his debts and a failed love affair. There he is pursued by book-loving Ganna- giddy, girlish, clumsy, eccentric and wild. Dazzled and unnerved by her devotion to him, and attracted to the large dowry offered by her wealthy father, he thinks he can mould Ganna into what he wants. But no-one can control her troubling passions. As their marriage starts to self-destruct, Herzog will discover that Ganna has resources and determination of which he had no idea - and that he can never escape her. Posthumously published in 1934 and based on Wassermann's own ruinous marriage, My First Wifebears the unmistakable aura of true and bitter experience. It is a tragic masterpiece that unfolds in shocking detail. Now this story of rare intensity and drama is brought to English readers in a powerful new translation by Michael Hofmann.
Elizabeth Lancaster, an English professor at Pasadena City College, finds her perfectly dull but perfectly orchestrated life upended one summer by three men: her movie-star ex-husband, a charming political operative, and William Shakespeare. Until now, she’d been content living in the shadow of her high-profile and highly accomplished family. Then her college boyfriend and one-time husband of seventeen months, A-list action star FX Fahey, shows up with a job offer that she can’t resist, and Elizabeth’s life suddenly gets a whole lot more interesting. She’s off to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the summer to make sure FX doesn’t humiliate himself in an avant-garde production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. As she did so skillfully with her first novel, Helen of Pasadena, which spent more than a year on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list, Lian Dolan spins a lively, smart, and very funny tale of a woman reinventing her life in unexpected ways. Lian Dolan is also the co-author of The Satellite Sisters' Uncommon Senses. As part of the Satellite Sisters, Lian and her four sisters found national acclaim first on NPR, then on ABC Radio and XM Satellite Radio. She also creates the popular podcast and blog Chaos Chronicles.
from Enormously Sad . . . Sad, so sad-compared to what? To your earlier more oblivious state? It never was oblivious enough- always those presentiments of sadness prickling the limbic. Now a voice says, Get outside yourself, go walk on the flats. The tide's gone out— but your little metal detector will detect little metallic coins of enormous sadness in the teeming wet sand, and then, the tide will come back, erasing, cleansing! And you, standing there in the salty scouring air- will you still be enormously sad, While the other world, outside your tiny purview, struck by iron, reels? World of intentional iron, pure savage organized iron of the world, it hasn't the time that you have for your puny enormous sadness. Widely acclaimed for expanding the stylistic boundaries of both the narrative and meditative lyric, Gail Mazur’s poetry crackles with verbal invention as she confronts the inevitable upheavals of a lived life. Zeppo’s First Wife, which includes excerpts from Mazur’s four previous books, as well as twenty-two new poems, is epitomized by the worldly longing of the title poem, with its searching poignancy and comic bravura. Mazur’s explorations of “this fallen world, this loony world” are deeply moving acts of empathy by a singular moral sensibility—evident from the earliest poem included here, the much-anthologized “Baseball,” a stunning bird’s-eye view of human foibles and passions. Clear-eyed, full of paradoxical griefs and appetites, her poems brave the most urgent subjects—from the fraught luscious Eden of the ballpark, to the fragility of our closest human ties, to the implications for America in a world where power and war are cataclysmic for the strong as well as the weak.
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE INSTANT #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER USA Today bestseller Edgar + ITW Thriller Award nominee for Best First Novel “Think: Dexter but sexier.”—theSkimm “A dark and irresistible debut.”—People “Will shock even the savviest suspense readers.”—Real Simple Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this wildly compulsive debut thriller about a couple whose fifteen-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting... Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored. We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with. We all have our secrets to keeping a marriage alive. Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.
At the one-year anniversary of his death, legendary musician Prince's first wife shares a uniquely intimate, candid, and revelatory look inside the personal and professional life of one of the world's most beloved icons. In The Most Beautiful, a title inspired by the hit song Prince wrote about their legendary love story, Mayte Garcia for the first time shares the deeply personal story of their relationship and offers a singular perspective on the music icon and their world together: from their unconventional meeting backstage at a concert (and the long-distance romance that followed), to their fairy-tale wedding (and their groundbreaking artistic partnership), to the devastating losses that ultimately dissolved their romantic relationship for good. Throughout it all, they shared a bond more intimate than any other in Prince's life. No one else can tell this story or can provide a deeper, more nuanced portrait of Prince -- both the famously private man and the pioneering, beloved artist -- than Mayte, his partner during some of the most pivotal personal and professional years of his career. The Most Beautiful is a book that will be returned to for decades, as Prince's music lives on with generations to come.
The tears began to flow. 'I can't do this on my own, ' Emily sobbed. 'I don't know how.' When Emily's husband dies in a terrible accident, she's not the only wife he leaves behind. Because, before their whirlwind romance and Emily's discovery she was pregnant, Pete had been married to Caroline for more than twenty years. A devastating tragedy had torn them apart. But there was a part of Pete that had never fully left his first wife and a secret that would bind them together, forever. Finding herself lonely, heartbroken, and forced to face life and motherhood alone - Emily is surprised that Caroline offers her support. But Emily knows she needs someone she can trust and rely on. Even if it's the woman her husband loved before her. A tentative friendship develops and their lives become entwined. Their bond grows ever stronger as Caroline steps in to help when Emily's baby arrives unexpectedly early. But it's not just Caroline hiding a secret. Both of the women who once loved Pete have things they can never admit, without risking a friendship that might be the only thing keeping them both afloat. When grief begins to takes its toll on Emily, she feels sure that Caroline is the only person who can save her and baby Dylan... But should she trust the woman he loved before her - with her life... Or her child's? An utterly devastating, but ultimately uplifting, emotional women's fiction novel about friendship, motherhood and loss. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Susan Lewis and Jojo Moyes. Readers love Emma Robinson: 'Wow!!! Where to even begin Mind you, it's hard enough to write this with blurry eyes through tears!!... Absolutely heartbreaking and a real tear jerker.' Kirsty Whitlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I don't even know where to begin to review this absolutely gut-wrenching, beautiful story... I have never audibly sobbed or struggled to read a book through tears, but this one was tough.... I cannot express the need for everyone to read this book... It is just beautiful and I think it gives a lot for people to learn from in their own lives too.' Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
