Wife

<p><b>Set in the world of London academia, both past and present, <i>Wife </i>by Charlotte Mendelson is heart-breaking and funny, profound and gripping, as it takes the reader from the end of a relationship to its beginning, and back again.</b><br><br>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 . . .<br><br>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 ingénue as far as Penny&rsquo;s sophisticated circle is concerned. But Penny leaves Zoe a cryptic note, and a passionate affair ensues.<br><br>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&rsquo;s adoration, and thus the beginning of their affair might also have signalled its end.<br><br><b>Praise for Charlotte Mendelson:<br><br>'A master at family drama' &ndash; <i>The Times</i><br><br>'One of the funniest writers in Britain' &ndash; <i>The Guardian</i><br><br>'Mendelson's novels inhabit similar territory to those of Maggie O'Farrell, with the same capacity for extreme noticing, the same profound emotional intelligence' &ndash; <i>The Observer</i></b></p>