The Prodigal Wife

Mar 10, 2026 2:51 PM

Author:Marcia Willett

The Prodigal Wife

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'A genuine voice of our times' The Times

'Riveting, moving and utterly feel-good' Daily Mail

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Once broken up, can a family ever be mended again?

Jolyon Chadwick, a famous television presenter, takes his new girlfriend Henrietta home meet his extended family - and also to meet Marie, the mother who deserted him and his father many years ago, now re-appeared and seeming to want forgiveness.

Jolyon, however, is not in the mood for forgiveness - although his father Hal, now married to his cousin and childhood sweetheart, feels a lingering guilt about Marie and wants them all to be friends. And Henrietta, still vulnerable from the break-up of her own parents' marriage, is not sure whether she can move on.

Enthralling and heartwarming, The Prodigal Wife is perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore, Victoria Hislop and Erica James.

Reviews

It's brave territory for Ogawa, and she manages in with sharp focus; she creates moments of breathtaking ugliness, often when least expected...but also sometimes a longing that is touching and tender

—— Independent

Both very weird and very good... Image by perfect image, we are led down into a mysterious and gripping universe, simultaneously beautiful and terrifying... From the opening sentences of Hotel Iris you know that every word will count and that every scene will be the occasion for strong and strange feeling

—— Times Literary Supplement

To read Ogawa is to enter a dreamlike state tinged with a nightmare... She possesses an effortless, glassy, eerie brilliance

—— Guardian

Precisely written, this dreamlike narrative expands into an ambiguous story of sexual dependency and damage. Ogawa's exact prose glitters as menacingly as the surrounding sea

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

Exploring dark desires is something at which Ogawa has become disconcertingly adept

—— New York Times

Ogawa explores the power of words to allure and destroy in this haiku-like fable of love contorted into obsession... A savage novel

—— Publishers Weekly

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