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Four Wives
Four Wives
Jan 13, 2026 10:23 PM

Author:Wendy Walker

Four Wives

Meet: Gayle Beck, the matriarch of Hunting Ridge society, who struggles to reconcile her picture-perfect life with a numbing sense of unfulfilment; Love Welsh, adoring mother, who battles with memories of a childhood lived in the shadow of a genius father; Marie Passeti, over-stretched divorce lawyer and mother, who has lost her passion for life and for her husband; and Janie Kirk, yummy mummy, whose quest for acceptance knows no bounds.

In a world where happiness comes second to appearances, their domestic discontent spirals into an irreversible course of risk-taking, secrecy and self-destruction. For these four wives perfection is just a façade and behind closed doors infidelity, self-doubt and deceit run rife.

Reviews

Acutely well observed and suspenseful ... 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 , Life Swap

A cleverly woven, sexy debut that is a fascinating peek inside the gilded cages of suburban matrimony ... A true page-turner treat.

—— Jill Kargman, author of , Momzillas

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

Walker's first novel is a treat. It's well written and features great characters, lots of humor, and dead-on analysis of friendship, marriage, and motherhood.

—— Library Journal

Terrific. Nakedly honest, a tour de force of self-destruction. As Saul spirals into free-fall we're with him all the way, because he's so furiously funny

—— Deborah Moggach

In this second novel Steve Tesich has created an anti-hero as appealing as any dreamt up by Philip Roth or Saul Bellow

—— Independent

Scathing, hilarious and glorious

—— New York Times Book Review

Karoo is a very good and very funny novel of the old-fashioned American kind, the tragi-comic story - familiar from Philip Roth and JP Donleavy - of a selfish but vulnerable and oddly lovable monster whose own shortcomings don't disqualify him from saying some sharp things about the hypocrisies of the allegedly better-balanced types who despise him

—— Herald

Adulterous alcoholic and pathological liar, it is, nevertheless, hard not to love Karoo, whose sardonic observations are both poignant and extremely funny. This is comic writing at its best. Clever, well crafted and proof that Tesich was master of the medium

—— The Times

Brilliantly funny in its early chapters, but also very wise, the virtuosic irony turns to bitterness as a tragic story develops. Tesich died just after completing this marvellous, heart-felt valediction.

—— Scotland on Sunday

A sad novel with a jaunty, upbeat tone that disguises the tragedy of Tesich's magnetic characters

—— Observer

[A] bold and deeply wise collection

—— BuzzFeed

Startlingly, blazingly original.

—— BookPage

[A] riveting collection of short stories ... darkly imagined, slightly surreal

—— San Jose Mercury News

Exhilarating ... His mastery of setting simply wowed me.

—— THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Marked by the conflicts of heart and mind, and the exuberant quality of its compassionate prose.

—— THE HUFFINGTON POST

Compulsively readable ... Johnson serves up six sinewy stories that shock and surprise.

—— Elle Magazine

A rare combination of inventiveness, intellectual pyrotechnics and emotional sophistication ... these stories are treasures.

—— BBC.Com

Bittersweet, elegant, full of ward-won wisdom: this is no ordinary book either.

—— Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review)

Hefty and memorable ...the stories provide one of the truest satisfactions of reading: the opportunity to sing into worlds we otherwise know little or nothing about.

—— Starred Kirkus Review

Terrific. Shows exactly why Johnson is rated as one of the hottest writers of his generation.

—— Mail on Sunday

The perfect antidote to Trump.

—— Sarah Churchwell , Guardian

This book is a compelling study of the relationship between artist and spectator, and how suffering feeds into art, and he’s made of it a bravura performance… Extraordinary.

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

A haunting, intense and Man Booker International prize-winning novel from a great writer.

—— Mail on Sunday

Incredibly fast paced, and the dialogue comes at you like a machine gun… It is powerful in its own right.

—— Sara Garland , Nudge

Abrasive, unexpected and eventually heartbreaking, it is a masterclass in characterisation and structure, and it beat off some exceptionally strong competition to win the prize… A Horse Walks into a Bar is quite unlike any other Grossman book except in one important respect: it’s another masterpiece.

—— Nick Barley , New Statesman

Excellent.

—— Dara Ó Briain , Observer

Pitch-perfect black comedy

—— Salman Rushdie , Guardian
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