The Other Wife

Paperback Published on: 23/07/2026
Price: £9.99
Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £2.99
Coming soon
Published 23/07/2026
Make and edit your lists in your account
No stock available in any shop.
Coming soon
Published 23/07/2026
No stock available in any shop.

Synopsis

'A searing, beautiful book' KILEY REID, bestselling author of SUCH A FUN AGE

Susan ‘Zuzu’ Braeburn is almost forty. She has the life she’s always dreamed of – a beautiful house, a child, a successful partner. But something between her and Agnes has been off for a long time, and she can’t help but wonder ‘what if’.

What if she had chosen to live with her father instead of her mother after their divorce? To pursue art over law? And, most importantly, to pursue her feelings for her male best friend from college, Cash, instead of marrying Agnes?

When an unexpected loss takes her back to her hometown, over a single wintery weekend, the questions in Zuzu’s mind become too loud to ignore. She grapples with the choices she’s made and the knowledge that she doesn’t have infinite time to make changes in her life

The Other Wife speaks to unfulfilled desires and the euphoric nostalgia that’s particular to the beginning of middle age; it is heartfelt and daring in its reckoning with the quest for joy.

'Tender, wise, and thoroughly compelling' R.O. Kwon, author of THE INCENDIARIES

'A marvellous study in how much desire lives in memory, in nostalgia and in fantasy' THE WASHINGTON POST

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
  • ISBN: 9781405972000
  • Number of pages: 304
  • Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 20 mm
  • Weight: 208g
  • Languages: English

Customer Reviews

View all
The Other Wife
A novel about choices and consequences
There’s something about big life changes that makes you stop and take stock—of where you are, how you got there, and who’s standing beside you. Susan ‘Z... READ MORE
Claire Hennighan
The Other Wife
unusual book
This was an odd book, almost a sliding doors scenario with the main character, Zuzu, seemingly unsure about her relationship with her wife Agnes and wonder... READ MORE
jean
The Other Wife
A Slice of Life
Zuzu's life has been one of significant choices, and in this, her fortieth year, she fears that she has chosen wrongly every time. Zuzu narrates the story ... READ MORE
Katy Wheatley
The Other Wife
A quietly powerful and introspective novel that offers a deep dive into the psyche of its protagonist
The Other Wife is a quietly powerful and introspective novel that offers a deep dive into the psyche of its protagonist, Zuzu. What I found most compelling... READ MORE
Tierney Moore
The Other Wife
A beautifully-written, well-observed and painfully relatable debut.
If you enjoyed Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, this is probably your jam. It’s character-driven but plot-light and our FMC is flawed and frustra... READ MORE
Joy Davis
The Other Wife
Beautiful and unusual
Beautiful writing, a wonderfully complicated central character - not unlikeable but also not straightforward. This book felt dreamy in the way it drifts ba... READ MORE
Marianne Dugdale