In her last novel, The Exhibitionist, Charlotte Mendelson explored with glorious relish the torments of being married to a monster. Ray Hanrahan, a one-time YBA and full-time egomaniac, is abusive, manipulative and misogynist, an alloy of self-aggrandisement and self-pity. As his family gathers for his first exhibition in more than a decade, his more talented wife, Lucia, must decide whether to sabotage her own success as a sculptor to save her marriage. It is a brilliant and blackly comic study of narcissistic dysfunction, powered by the double desire to see Lucia break free as a woman and an artist, and the unspeakable Ray get his just deserts. Gimlet-eyed, sharp-tongued, blisteringly precise, it crackles with female fire and fury.
That fury cranks up to 11 in Wife, the evisceration of another toxic marriage, this time between two women. Zoe and Penny have been together 18 years and have two teenage daughters, Rose, biologically Penny’s, and Matty, biologically Zoe’s, but, after years of emotional abuse, Zoe has reached breaking point. Over the course of a single harrowing day she and Matty must move out of the family home with or without Rose, a conflict that is tearing her in two. She must also survive a mediation meeting with Penny, the girls’ biological father, Robin, and Robin’s sister (and Penny’s ex) Justine, all of whom blame Zoe for absolutely everything that has gone wrong.
