Helpful Score: 3
Sarah Price is a thirty-five year old wife and mother of two small children. 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 Degree for a steady job, which allows her husband Nathan to write fiction. But Sarah is happy and she believes Nathan is too, until a shattering truth is revealed: Nathan's upcoming novel, Infidelity, is based in fact.
Suddenly Sarah's world is totally 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 Nathan's betrayal, Sarah is constantly plagued by dark questions. How well does she really know Nathan? And, more importantly, how well does she really 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 unread volumes of Proust on her bookshelf. And then there is that email in her inbox: a note from Rajiv, a beautiful man from her past who once tempted her to stray. The struggle to discover 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 of self-discovery.
I really enjoyed this book. It was beautifully written and the characters completely drew me in. I just had to find out what happened to them. Husband and Wife is the first book by Leah Stewart that I have read, although I will certainly be looking out for more books by this author. I give Husband and Wife by Leah Stewart an A!
Suddenly Sarah's world is totally 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 Nathan's betrayal, Sarah is constantly plagued by dark questions. How well does she really know Nathan? And, more importantly, how well does she really 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 unread volumes of Proust on her bookshelf. And then there is that email in her inbox: a note from Rajiv, a beautiful man from her past who once tempted her to stray. The struggle to discover 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 of self-discovery.
I really enjoyed this book. It was beautifully written and the characters completely drew me in. I just had to find out what happened to them. Husband and Wife is the first book by Leah Stewart that I have read, although I will certainly be looking out for more books by this author. I give Husband and Wife by Leah Stewart an A!
