Meg Wolitzer is so funny and clever she should be bottled and sold as tonic

A triumph of tone and observation, The Wife is a blithe, brilliant take on sexual politics

Hilarious and touching

With a great lightness of touch, Wolitzer's novel satirises American literary circles of the Seventies and Eighties and traces the generation of wives who poured their own creative energies into "stoking the fires" of their husbands' reputations.

The wife was published less than a decade ago, but I say it is already a classic - and I have no idea why it's author remains so less well known than her US compatriots, Alison Lurie and Lorrie Moore.