Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2010
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
On the eve of their Silver Anniversary, Mary Gooch is waiting for her husband Jimmy - still every inch the handsome star athlete he was in high school - to come home. As night turns to day, it becomes frighteningly clear to Mary that he is gone. Through the years, disappointment and worry have brought Mary's life to a standstill, and she has let her universe shrink to the well-worn path from the bedroom to the refrigerator. But her husband's disappearance startles her out of her inertia, and she begins a desperate search.
For the first time in her life, she boards a plane and flies across the country to find her lost husband. So used to hiding from the world, Mary finds that in the bright sun and broad vistas of California, she is forced to look up from the pavement. And what she finds fills her with inner strength she's never felt before. Through it all, Mary not only finds kindred spirits, but reunites with a more intimate stranger no longer sequestered by fear and habit: herself.
"Lansens's handling of her eventual transformation into someone capable of compassion and acceptance is handled with a light but assured touch." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Lansens's portrait of a woman who hides behind the Kenmore as protection from life's heartache is earthy and primal in its pain. ... Highly recommended." - Library Journal
"While Mary's evolution is all too predictable, Lansens never adequately explains the more enigmatic, sympathetic Gooch. Redemption Lite." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about The Wife's Tale was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lori Lansens was a successful screenwriter before she burst onto the literary scene in 2002 with her first novel Rush Home Road. Published in eleven countries, it received rave reviews around the world. Her follow-up novel The Girls was an international success as well. Rights were sold in 13 territories and it was a Richard & Judy book club pick in the UK, selling 300,000 copies. Her third novel The Wife's Tale is currently in development as a feature film.
Born and raised in Chatham, Ontario, Lori Lansens now makes her home in the Santa Monica Mountains with her husband and two children.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
