{"product_id":"9780374208431","title":"The Mere Wife : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Mere Wife\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Maria Dahvana Headley\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e, set in American suburbia as two mothers—a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran—fight to protect those they love in \u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildings—high and gabled—and the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outside—in lawns and on playgrounds—wildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall’s periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn’t want Gren, didn’t plan Gren, and doesn’t know how she got Gren, but when she returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with Dylan, Dana’s and Willa’s worlds collide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"So: I loved \u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife\u003c\/i\u003e and I bet lots of other people will too . . . Everyone should read \u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife\u003c\/i\u003e. It's a wonderfully unexpected dark\/funny\/lyrical\/angry retelling of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e; what's not to like?\" —\u003cb\u003eEmily Wilson, translator of \u003ci\u003eThe Odyssey\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Smart, tough modern flip of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e, told through Grendel's mother.\" —\u003cb\u003eMargaret Atwood, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Handmaid's Tale\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Fan-fucking-tastic . . . this book! Oh, this book! It's brutal and beautiful and unflinching.” —\u003cb\u003eJustina Ireland, author of \u003ci\u003eFeral Youth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Headley's jabs at suburban smugness are fun . . . [and her] prose can be stark, lacerating, insightful . . . The role reversals Headley devises—and the way she adapts an ancient tale into a 21st-century struggle between haves and have-nots, brown-skinned and white, damaged and intact—are largely effective.\" —\u003cb\u003eMichael Upchurch, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The most surprising novel I've read this year. It's a bloody parody of suburban sanctimony and a feminist revision of macho heroism. In this brash appropriation of the Anglo-Saxon epic, Headley swoops from comedy to tragedy, from the drama of brunch to the horrors of war.\" —\u003cb\u003eRon Charles, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Spiky, arresting . . . The novel plays ingeniously with its ancient source.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eSam Sacks, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A sly satire of suburbia, wittily detailed and narratively bold . . . with its roots in ancient legend [\u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife\u003c\/i\u003e] proves especially relevant in this time of heightened fear of the Other.\" —\u003cb\u003eMichael Berry, \u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"The lives of two protective mothers in American suburbia collide in [this] fascinating contemporary retelling of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e.” —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Headley (whose own translation [of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e] comes out next year) brings the story of the hero, the monster, and the monster’s mother into contemporary times with uncommon vigor and depth.” —\u003cb\u003eBoris Kachka, \u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Headley's divergences and additions, descriptions of glittering scenery and bloody battles, keep us entranced as those who once gathered round the fire to hear of heroic deeds and shudder at the monsters among us.\" \u003cb\u003e—Kathleen Alcala, \u003ci\u003eThe Cascadia Subduction Zone\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The world needs this book . . . In Headley’s hands, \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e is revealed to be the perfect story to bring forward from the depths of Western history. Headley has turned it over, poked its squishy underbelly, asked it a bunch of questions, and come out with an entirely new version of the tale, exploring new perspectives and revealing truths new and old. It’s also a great, heart-wrenching read . . . If you enjoy battling monsters, I can’t recommend this book enough.” —\u003cb\u003eLeah Schnelbach\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTor.com\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Maria Dahvana Headley’s new novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife\u003c\/i\u003e, is much more than a simple recasting of the ancient epic poem \u003ci\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/i\u003ein the suburbs . . . Headley, who is also working on a new translation of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e, subverts the epic by exploring its good-versus-evil battle from the perspective of women who were largely left on the margins by the ancient bards.” —\u003cb\u003eJennifer Kay, \u003ci\u003eThe Associated Press\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e“The Mere Wife \u003c\/i\u003eis a book on par with Lidia Yuknavitch's \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Joan\u003c\/i\u003e: electric, feminist, literary retellings of famous tales, but with dystopian spins. \u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife \u003c\/i\u003ereimagines \u003ci\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/i\u003eby setting it in a suburban landscape of intense economic disparity . . . Headley's language is exquisite and imaginative, the contemporary adaptation on-point and thought provoking--essentially, \u003ci\u003ethis \u003c\/i\u003eis how to retell a classic.” —\u003cb\u003eElena Nicolaou, \u003ci\u003eRefinery29\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley takes a significant gamble in recasting Old English epic \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e in the American suburbs—but the gamble pays off. She enhances the themes of the classic with contemporary and feminist accents, creating a work that is both unique and worthy.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Christian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e, Best Books of July\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[A] stunner: a darkly electric reinterpretation of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/i\u003ethat upends its Old English framework to comment on the nature of heroes and how we 'other' those different from ourselves... A strange tale told with sharp poetic imagery and mythic fervor.\" —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eBooklist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, starred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"There’s not a false note in this retelling, which does the \u003ci\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/i\u003epoet and his spear-Danes proud.\" —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003estarred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Headley (\u003ci\u003eMagonia\u003c\/i\u003e) applies the broad contours of the Beowulf story to her tale but skillfully seeds her novel with reflections on anxieties and neuroses that speak to the concerns of modern parenting.\" —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"The Mere Wife \u003c\/i\u003e[is] an intense, visceral reading experience. . . [the book is] a revisioning of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e, and Maria finds the bones, the sharp edges, the bleeding heart of that story, and tells it against a modern context.\" —\u003cb\u003eKat Howard, author of \u003ci\u003eAn Unkindness of Magicians\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Maria Dahvana Headley is a gift, a genius, and an absolute wonder; I would follow her anywhere.\" —\u003cb\u003eCarmen Maria Machado, author of \u003ci\u003eHer Body and Other Parties\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife \u003c\/i\u003eis a work of magic. A wild adventure; a celebration of monsters, myths, and the power of mother-love. Imagine a writer so bold, so ambitious, so about it that she challenges Beowulf to arm wrestle. That writer is Maria Dahvana Headley and let me tell you something, she is here to win.\" —\u003cb\u003eVictor LaValle, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Changeling\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Maria Dahvana Headley translates the excesses of contemporary life into the gloriously mythic. This is not just an old story in new clothes: this is a consciousness-altering mind trip of a book.” —\u003cb\u003eKelly Link, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eGet in Trouble\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Maria Dahvana Headley writes with crackling headlong sentences that range among old plots and news observations about a world that earlier today seemed too familiar. Master story teller, brilliant stylist, a writer with this sort of command of language is a delight to read. Here's a book to call up an old story in the newest possible way.\" \u003cb\u003e—Samuel R. Delany, author of \u003ci\u003eDhalgren\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDark Reflections\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife \u003c\/i\u003eis an astonishing reinterpretation of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e: Beowulf in suburbia—epic, operatic, and razor-sharp, a story not of a thick-thewed thegn, but of women at war, as wives and warriors, mothers and matriarchs. Their chosen weapons are as likely to be swords as public relations, and they wield both fearlessly. They rule, and they fight.\" \u003cb\u003e—Nicola Griffith, author of \u003ci\u003eHild\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"With a sharp eye and a deft flourish, Maria Dahvana Headley reimagines one of our oldest stories to give us a chilling, elemental vision of our latest selves. \u003ci\u003eThe Mere Wife\u003c\/i\u003e is a bold, stunning riptide of a book.\" —\u003cb\u003eTéa Obreht, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Tiger's Wife\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShort-listed World Fantasy Award - Finalist (2019), Long-listed Seattle Times Best Books of the Year (2018), Long-listed Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year (2018), Long-listed Washington Post Best Books of the Year (2018)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374208431\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"MCD","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40706847277262,"sku":"9780374208431","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_f07f8467-c8a6-428e-ab8b-871ca5f531c5.jpg?v=1640580723","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374208431","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}