Husband and Wife: A Novel

From Publishers Weekly Some confessions are better left unuttered, as Sarah Price learns in Stewart's ( The Myth of You and Me ) solid latest. When novelist Nathan Bennett confesses to his wife, Sarah, right before a friend's wedding that he slept with another woman (his novel is titled Infidelity ), Sarah's concerns shift from whether the dress she plans to wear to the wedding makes her look fat to what she will do about her future and that of their two young children, Mattie and Binx. What follows is an unflinching look at what happens when one's identity is shattered, and what-ifs and past choices come back to haunt the present. Chief among these what-ifs: Rajiv, an old friend nursing a long-unrequited crush on Sarah, and Sarah's longing to be seen once again as a poet. Stewart's graceful prose and easy storytelling pull the reader into caring about what happens to the struggling heroine while exploring the many gray areas of life and marriage. The conclusion, while true to Sarah, is surprising but not unrealistic. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. “Hilarious, heartbreaking, and wise, Husband and Wife is a novel to savor. Stewart’s bright heroine is faced with an impossible choice―and I couldn’t put the book down until I’d followed her story to the end.” -- Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Love Stories in This Town“Stewart’s book does what real life doesn’t always allow: It gives the woman a voice.” -- Raleigh News & Observer“Leah Stewart’s brilliantly written novel Husband and Wife is a deeply human book: funny, tender, smart, self-aware. When you read it you will laugh, you will cry, you will recognize others, you will recognize yourself.” -- Elin Hilderbrand, author of The Castaways and Barefoot “Heartbreaking and darkly humorous. . . . [Stewart] is an acute social observer.” -- BookPage.com“This narrative voice is so alive and specific that it moves past the idea of ‘narrative voice’ to become a human woman speaking to you. . . . I cherish this wry, funny, aching, intelligent character and this book!” -- Marisa de los Santos, author of Belong to Me and Love Walked In “Stewart creates a crisis of faith where adult reality collides with youthful dreams. The writing is tactile, elemental, even comical, providing readers with a situation that could so easily be their own.” -- Library Journal (starred review) In this new novel by the celebrated author of The Myth of You and Me , a young mother discovers that her husband's novel about infidelity might be drawn from real life. Sarah Price is thirty-five years old. She doesn't feel as though she's getting older, but there are some noticeable changes: a hangover after two beers, the stray gray hair, and, most of all, she's called “Mom” by two small children. Always responsible, Sarah traded her MFA for a steady job, which allows her husband, Nathan, to write fiction. But Sarah is happy and she believes Nathan is too, until a truth is revealed: Nathan's upcoming novel, Infidelity , is based in fact. Suddenly Sarah's world is turned upside down. Adding to her confusion, Nathan abdicates responsibility for the fate of their relationship and of his novel's publication—a financial lifesaver they have been depending upon—leaving both in Sarah's hands. Reeling from his betrayal, she is plagued by dark questions. How well does she really know Nathan? And, more important, how well does she know herself? For answers, Sarah looks back to her artistic twenty-something self to try to understand what happened to her dreams. When did it all seem to change? Pushed from her complacent plateau, Sarah begins to act—for the first time not so responsibly—on all the things she has let go of for so long: her blank computer screen; her best friend, Helen; the volumes of Proust on her bookshelf. And then there is that e-mail in her inbox: a note from Rajiv, a beautiful man from her past who once tempted her to stray. The struggle to find which version of herself is the essential one—artist, wife, or mother—takes Sarah hundreds of miles away from her marriage on a surprising journey. Wise, funny, and sharply drawn, Leah Stewart's Husband and Wife probes our deepest relationships, the promises we make and break, and the consequences they hold for our lives, revealing that it's never too late to step back and start over. Leah Stewart is the author of the novels The Myth of You and Me and Body of a Girl . A recipient of an NEA Literature Fellowship, she lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and their two young children. She teaches creative writing at the University of Cincinnati. Read more