Synopsis

"All I did is marry him. You are the ones who gave him power."

Quiet, bookish Alice Blackwell never dreamed of being First Lady. Much less to a President whose politics she doesn't believe in. On perhaps the most important day of her husband's presidency, Alice looks back on the strange and unlikely path that led her to the White House, and to a decision - both treacherous and long overdue - that could jeopardise everything.

Taking inspiration from real life, American Wife is a remarkable portrait of a woman caught between her feelings for her husband, her country, and herself.

A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940's, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was seventeen shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck.

So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: she was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat.

Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie.

Details

• Format : Thick 2nd Hand Paperback
• Condition : Very Good
• Category : Fiction - Families & Sagas
• Published : 2009 (Doubleday)
• ISBN : 9780552775540
• SKU : B000752
• PPC : SP410gm
• RRP : £7.99
• Quantity Available : 1 only.

External Reviews

"In Alice Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry - a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare." - Google Review.

'Honest, wonderful and smart as hell' - Guardian.

'My God, it's good . . . so beautifully written and so clever' - The Observer.

The Author