The Paris Wife was only the beginning of the story…
Summer, 1926. Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley take refuge from the blazing heat of Paris in a villa in the south of France. They swim and play bridge, and drink gin with abandon. But wherever they go they are accompanied by the glamorous and irrepressible Fife. Fife is Hadley's best friend. She is also Ernest's lover. Hadley is the first Mrs. Hemingway, but neither she nor Fife will be the last. Each Mrs. Hemingway thought their love would last forever; each one was wrong.
Narrated by Hemingway's four wives—Hadley, Fife, Martha, and Mary—and peopled with members of the fabled "Lost Generation"—including Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald—Mrs. Hemingway paints a complex portrait of the man behind the legend and the women behind the man, a riveting tale of passion, love, and heartbreak.
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“While Hemingway’s stories are known worldwide, Woodused copious love letters, diaries, and telegrams to flesh out the stories thatthese women might have told. Flitting from bohemian 1920s Paris to sunnyHavana, from Paris in the days of WWII to 1960s America, Mrs. Hemingway spanseras. Wood’s research gives this passionate story a firm foundation, andreaders who enjoyed Loving Frank and The Paris Wife will adorethis ideal summer read. Seamlessly blending known facts with fiction, Mrs.Hemingway is an absorbing, tender glimpse inside the lives of those inHemingway’s inner circle.”
— Booklist
“Wood has given us a fascinating, astutely observed, gorgeously written account of the Hemingway wives and their charismatic, enigmatic, troubled, and troublesome husband. This is a gem of a book.”
— Therese Ann Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Z“Naomi Wood’s absorbing, illuminating novel offers fascinating portraits of four extraordinary women and the tortured literary genius who loved them. If you thought you knew all there was to know about Ernest Hemingway’s wives, their passions, and their heartbreak, think again.”
— Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln’s Rival“Forget everything you thought you knew about Ernest Hemingway’s four wives. In a quartet of searing interlocked portraits, Naomi Wood brings vividly to life the real women who loved and lost the legendary charmer and great writer. Mrs. Hemingway is a luminous, heartbreaking novel. Wood is a writer to watch.”
— Ellen Feldman, Orange Prize–shortlisted author of Lucy“Magnetic…Wood’s novel assembles a satisfying puzzle of personalities, bringing each relationship’s beginning, end, and overlap into vivid focus.”
— New York Times Book Review“Luminous, intoxicating…A passionate novel based on real lives, full of betrayals and moments of heartbreaking intimacy as Wood gives four remarkable women star billing.”
— Marie Claire (UK)“Well researched…interesting…[and] cleverly done.”
— Literary Review (UK)“Exquisitely written, the Mrs. Hemingways finally have their say in this beautiful novel.”
— Stylist Magazine (UK)“A beautiful read and an amazing insight into the life of the man…superb.”
— Red (UK)“It takes an unusual skill to keep someone reading a story to which they think they already know the ending. But Mrs. Hemingway is so beautifully written, and evocative, that I could not put it down until the last page.”
— Jojo Moyes, author of Me before You“Very occasionally, a piece of fiction based on facts is so good that I catch myself thinking: ‘Oh, so that’s how it really was.’ Wood achieves this in this breathtakingly good look at the lives of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives…Sublime.”
— Bookseller (UK)“British author Wood has written a well-researched novel about Hemingway’s spouses, pulling material from personal letters and archives. Each wife tells her own story, effortlessly moving the reader through almost forty years of Hemingway’s life…Each woman’s story flows seamlessly into the next, providing a detailed account of Hemingway’s erratic nature.”
— Library Journal“The four wives of Ernest Hemingway—each loved, each abandoned—are given understated yet telling voices as they recount their relationships with a mercurial giant of literature…With its delicate phrasing, softly voiced but insightful portraits, and unsensational handling of the love triangles, Woods’ novel revisits literary myth with restrained empathy.”
— Kirkus Reviews“It’s superb, everything about it—the sentences, details, dialogue, but also the architecture, the way it’s built. It flirts with all that’s already known, but the women feel real and fresh, and through their eyes so does Hemingway.”
— Andrew Cowan, author of Pig“A detailed and deeply affecting account of the complex relationship between love and work.”
— Ian Sansom, author of The Case of the Missing Books“With remarkable insight and boldness, Naomi Wood brilliantly takes on one of history’s most remembered writers and the women who loved him. Obsessively readable, fascinating, and heartbreaking, Mrs. Hemingway captures a time and people in a style the legend himself would no doubt admire.”
— Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s GirlBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Naomi Wood was awarded the 2012 inaugural Eccles Centre British Library Writer in Residence Award. She is the Young Patrons Ambassador at the British Library and teaches at Goldsmiths University. She lives in London.
Kate Reading, named an AudioFile Golden Voice, has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirty–year plus career and won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. Among other awards, she has been recognized as an AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and winner of an Publisher’s Weekly’s Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.