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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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THE WIFE S TALE

Lori Lansens

A Novel

With sharp humour and delicate grace, THE WIFE'S TALE follows Mary Gooch - morbildy obese and living in denial- as she pursues her husband across the country.
Mary is fat. Not just fat, but morbidly obese. She knows she's fat (thank you very much) and lives her life in defensive, deflective blame, isolating herself in the small farming town of Leaford, Ontario, the locale of Lori Lansens' first two novels. Everyone skirts the subject of her weight, the literal elephant in the room. Mary and her husband Gooch have gradually drifted away from each other.

On their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, Mary's husband disappears. Bewildered, Mary abandons her sheltered life in pursuit of him across America, encountering a dazzling array of characters and discovering a boundless supply of human kindness in unexpected places. Runaway children, single mothers, taxi drivers, migrant workers and bitter relatives enter her life in chaotic fashion. Pounds melt away as she walks, runs, swims, drives and flies in momentous steps from claustrophobic Leaford to the freedom of California, her missing husband a spectre dogging each step. She discovers new worlds in hidden pockets of Los Angeles before she arrives at her final destination, the most unexpected surprise of all.

The Wife's Tale is a vivid exploration of a woman taking small, courageous steps toward her authentic self for the first time in her life. In pursuit of her husband, she finds herself instead. Mary Gooch is as indelible a creation as Sharla Cody and Addy Shad of Rush Home Road and Rose and Ruby Darlen of The Girls.
Available products
Book

Published 2010-02-01 by Little Brown

Book

Published 2010-02-01 by Little Brown

Comments

Lansens’ clear prose unveils the connection between a body weighed down by flesh and a spirit smothered by loneliness. Mary’s odyssey of heartache and hope is not so much about finding her husband as it is about rediscovering herself.

US: Little, Brown & Co., 2010 / US Audio: Brilliance Audio / US Large Print: Center Point Publishers UK: Virago, 2010 Canada: Knopf, 2009 Italy: Mondadori Netherlands: De Bezige Bij Brazil (Portuguese): Bertrand Brasil French-Canada: Editions Poland: W.A.B. Turkey: Artemis Yayinlari Norway: Juritzen Forlag French world rights (excl. Canada): Editions l’Archipel Film: Les Films Outsiders Inc.

Lansens writes with acute insight... fully immersing readers in her protagonist’s struggle to find a new and better self.

Lansens’ portrait of a woman who hides behind the Kenmore as protection from life’s heartache is earthy and primal in its pain. Yet Lansens doesn’t resort to an overnight makeover to save Mary. Instead, our heroine uncovers a hidden strength she had all along. Those who loved The Girls will be pleased that Lansens is back. Highly recommended.

Sensitive but deliciously comic.... Lansens has more than a few tales worth telling.

[Mary is] a wonderful character, and Lansens’ handling of her eventual transformation into someone capable of compassion and acceptance is handled with a light but assured touch.

Lori Lansens, best-selling author of The Girls, structures The Wife’s Tale as the story of a damaged heroine on a quest. The trick is that (as in any good quest story) the real object of the search isn’t what the searcher thinks it is. ... [A] fast-moving story and Mary’s gradual metamorphosis... rings true.