Mrs. Hemingway

Reviews

“Wood has given us a fascinating, astutely observed, gorgeously written account of the Hemingway wives and their charismatic, enigmatic, troubled, and troublesome husband. This is a gem of a book.”

“Naomi Wood’s absorbing, illuminating novel offers fascinating portraits of four extraordinary women and the tortured literary genius who loved them. If you thought you knew all there was to know about Ernest Hemingway’s wives, their passions, and their heartbreak, think again.”

“Forget everything you thought you knew about Ernest Hemingway’s four wives. In a quartet of searing interlocked portraits, Naomi Wood brings vividly to life the real women who loved and lost the legendary charmer and great writer. Mrs. Hemingway is a luminous, heartbreaking novel. Wood is a writer to watch.”

“Magnetic…Wood’s novel assembles a satisfying puzzle of personalities, bringing each relationship’s beginning, end, and overlap into vivid focus.”

“Luminous, intoxicating…A passionate novel based on real lives, full of betrayals and moments of heartbreaking intimacy as Wood gives four remarkable women star billing.”

“Well researched…interesting…[and] cleverly done.”

“Exquisitely written, the Mrs. Hemingways finally have their say in this beautiful novel.”

“A beautiful read and an amazing insight into the life of the man…superb.”

“It takes an unusual skill to keep someone reading a story to which they think they already know the ending. But Mrs. Hemingway is so beautifully written, and evocative, that I could not put it down until the last page.”

“Very occasionally, a piece of fiction based on facts is so good that I catch myself thinking: ‘Oh, so that’s how it really was.’ Wood achieves this in this breathtakingly good look at the lives of Ernest Hemingway’s four wives…Sublime.”

“British author Wood has written a well-researched novel about Hemingway’s spouses, pulling material from personal letters and archives. Each wife tells her own story, effortlessly moving the reader through almost forty years of Hemingway’s life…Each woman’s story flows seamlessly into the next, providing a detailed account of Hemingway’s erratic nature.”

“While Hemingway’s stories are known worldwide, Wood used copious love letters, diaries, and telegrams to flesh out the stories that these women might have told. Flitting from bohemian 1920s Paris to sunny Havana, from Paris in the days of WWII to 1960s America, Mrs. Hemingway spans eras. Wood’s research gives this passionate story a firm foundation, and readers who enjoyed Loving Frank and The Paris Wife will adore this ideal summer read. Seamlessly blending known facts with fiction, Mrs. Hemingway is an absorbing, tender glimpse inside the lives of those in Hemingway’s inner circle.”

“The four wives of Ernest Hemingway—each loved, each abandoned—are given understated yet telling voices as they recount their relationships with a mercurial giant of literature…With its delicate phrasing, softly voiced but insightful portraits, and unsensational handling of the love triangles, Woods’ novel revisits literary myth with restrained empathy.”

“It’s superb, everything about it—the sentences, details, dialogue, but also the architecture, the way it’s built. It flirts with all that’s already known, but the women feel real and fresh, and through their eyes so does Hemingway.”

“A detailed and deeply affecting account of the complex relationship between love and work.”

“With remarkable insight and boldness, Naomi Wood brilliantly takes on one of history’s most remembered writers and the women who loved him. Obsessively readable, fascinating, and heartbreaking, Mrs. Hemingway captures a time and people in a style the legend himself would no doubt admire.”

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