NCWN

A More Obedient Wife: A Novel of the Early Supreme Court by Natalie Wexler

Kalorama Press

ISBN 978-0-6151-3516-8

$21.50

 

 

A unique blend of actual 18^th-century letters and sensitively imagined fiction, A More Obedient Wife tells the story of two women in the 1790s–each in a troubled marriage to a Supreme Court Justice–swept up in the little-known but fascinating early history of our nation’s premier judicial institution. Hannah Iredell, the wife of Edenton, NC, lawyer James Iredell, is saddled with an alcoholic mother-in-law and plagued by doubts about her husband’s fidelity. Hannah Wilson, flirtatious and only nineteen, marries a distinguished and extravagantly wealthy man thirty years her senior but is soon dragged down into poverty and disgrace. When Mrs. Wilson finds herself attracted to Mrs. Iredell’s charming husband, the two women’s differences escalate into mutual hostility–until dramatic events lead them to form an unlikely friendship. Winner of a bronze medal for historical fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, A More Obedient Wife explores some timeless subjects, including depression, addiction, infidelity, friendship, and the relationship between spouses whose personalities and desires are sharply different. At the same time, the novel illuminates a turbulent era in which the country was inventing itself as it went along. Available online at Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com. Find out more at www.nataliewexler.com.

"A book capable of gripping the hearts and minds of its readers, a memorable tale of love and friendship played out against the background of the Federalist period." -- The Bethlehem Press