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Wife 22

A Novel

A Novel

A Novel

By Melanie Gideon

By Melanie Gideon

By Melanie Gideon

By Melanie Gideon

By Melanie Gideon
Read by Cassandra Campbell

By Melanie Gideon
Read by Cassandra Campbell

Best Seller
Paperback $17.00

Feb 12, 2013 | ISBN 9780345527967

Ebook $10.99

May 29, 2012 | ISBN 9780345527974

Audiobook Download $22.50

May 29, 2012 | 728 Minutes

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    Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon
    Paperback $17.00
    Feb 12, 2013 | ISBN 9780345527967

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    • Paperback $17.00

      Feb 12, 2013 | ISBN 9780345527967

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      May 29, 2012 | ISBN 9780345527974

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    About Wife 22

    “A skillful blend of pop-culture references, acidic humor, and emotional moments. It will take its rightful place . . . alongside Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Anna Maxted’s Getting Over It, and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It.”—Library Journal (starred review)

    Alice has been married to her husband, William, for twenty years.  Though she can still remember the first time they met like it was yesterday, these days she finds herself posting things on Facebook that she used to confide to him. So when she’s invited to participate in an anonymous online survey on marriage and love, she finds that all her longings come pouring out as she dutifully answers questions under the name “Wife 22.”

    Evaluating her responses is “Researcher 101,” who seems to listen to her in a way that William hasn’t in a very long time, and before she knows it, she finds herself trying hard not to e-flirt with him. Meanwhile, her elderly father is chatting on Facebook, her fifteen-year-old daughter is tweeting, and everything in her life is turning upside down.

    Wife 22 is a hilariously funny, profoundly moving, and deeply perceptive novel about the ways we live and love in this technological age, from a dazzling new voice in fiction.

    “An LOL Instagram about love in a wired world.”—People
     
    “Vibrant, au courant, and hilarious . . . brilliant!”—Adriana Trigiani

    About Wife 22

    “A skillful blend of pop-culture references, acidic humor, and emotional moments. It will take its rightful place . . . alongside Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Anna Maxted’s Getting Over It, and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It.”—Library Journal (starred review)

    Alice has been married to her husband, William, for twenty years.  Though she can still remember the first time they met like it was yesterday, these days she finds herself posting things on Facebook that she used to confide to him. So when she’s invited to participate in an anonymous online survey on marriage and love, she finds that all her longings come pouring out as she dutifully answers questions under the name “Wife 22.”

    Evaluating her responses is “Researcher 101,” who seems to listen to her in a way that William hasn’t in a very long time, and before she knows it, she finds herself trying hard not to e-flirt with him. Meanwhile, her elderly father is chatting on Facebook, her fifteen-year-old daughter is tweeting, and everything in her life is turning upside down.

    Wife 22 is a hilariously funny, profoundly moving, and deeply perceptive novel about the ways we live and love in this technological age, from a dazzling new voice in fiction.

    “An LOL Instagram about love in a wired world.”—People
     
    “Vibrant, au courant, and hilarious . . . brilliant!”—Adriana Trigiani

    BONUS: This edition includes a Wife 22 discussion guide.

    About Wife 22

    For fans of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.

    Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained. Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.
     
    But when the anonymous online study called “Marriage in the 21st Century” showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn’t long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).
     
    And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.
     
    7. Sometimes I tell him he’s snoring when he’s not snoring so he’ll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
    61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man’s children.
    67. To not want what you don’t have. What you can’t have. What you shouldn’t have.
    32. That if we weren’t careful, it was possible to forget one another.
     
    Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor’s appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.
     
    But these days, I’m also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I’ll have to make a decision—one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I’m too busy answering questions.
     
    As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.

    Read An Excerpt

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    Listen to a sample from Wife 22

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    Valley of the Moon
    The Slippery Year
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    See all books by Melanie Gideon

    Also by Melanie Gideon

    Valley of the Moon
    The Slippery Year
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    See all books by Melanie Gideon

    About Melanie Gideon

    Melanie Gideon is the bestselling author of the novels Wife 22 and Valley of the Moon and the memoir The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After. She is also the author of three young adult novels. Her books have… More about Melanie Gideon

    About Melanie Gideon

    Melanie Gideon is the bestselling author of the novels Wife 22 and Valley of the Moon and the memoir The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After. She is also the author of three young adult novels. Her books have… More about Melanie Gideon

    About Melanie Gideon

    Melanie Gideon is the bestselling author of the novels Wife 22 and Valley of the Moon and the memoir The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After. She is also the author of three young adult novels. Her books have… More about Melanie Gideon

    Product Details

    Category: Women’s Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Ballantine Books
    Feb 12, 2013 | 416 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780345527967

    Category: Women’s Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $10.99
    Published by Ballantine Books
    May 29, 2012 | 400 Pages | ISBN 9780345527974

    Category: Women’s Fiction | Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $22.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    May 29, 2012 | 728 Minutes | ISBN 9780307990563
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    Praise

    “An LOL Instagram about love in a wired world.”—People

    “Vibrant, au courant, and hilarious . . . brilliant!”—Adriana Trigiani

    “This modern-day, mixed-media comedy of manners is as up-to-the-minute as your favorite Twitter feed.”—The Washington Post

    “A skillful blend of pop-culture references, acidic humor, and emotional moments. It will take its rightful place . . . alongside Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Anna Maxted’s Getting Over It, and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It.”—Library Journal (starred review)

    “Channels the playful but incisive vibe of Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail.”—NPR

    “Fresh and funny . . . a delightful, thoroughly modern, guilty pleasure of a read.”—San Francisco Chronicle

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