Mrs. Hemingway

This is a wonderful book: carefully written, richly imagined and emotionally wise . . . It is all meticulously researched, but, as in the best of Penelope Fitzgerald, the research is worn lightly and never threatens to dominate . . . Even the well-known details of Hemingway's life are made fresh, given a new significance . . . Mrs. Hemingway feels truer than most of the biographies, and more real than many novels. Wood's method is an effective way of getting to grips with the central enigma: Hemingway himself, a man tortured by masculinity. But it is also a sensitive and moving evocation of those women he depended on, who his life often overshadowed (Daily Telegraph)

‘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’

Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You

‘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.’

Ellen Feldman, author of Scottsboro and Next to Love

A luminous, intoxicating look at the most important women in the life of a celebrated novelist . . . A passionate novel based on real lives, full of betrayals and moments of heartbreaking intimacy as Wood gives four remarkable women star billing (Marie Claire)

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. (Therese Anne Fowler, author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald)

The elegiac final chapters are beautifully achieved . . . the elegant prose and finely-wrought narrative of this humane novel exceed the sum of its parts (Independent)

This really is my book of the year so far. It is completely delicious on female friendship and competitiveness and fancying someone til you go a bit mad. And the fact that said women (the four Mrs Hemingways) are all uniquely formidable and glamorous is doubly fabulous (Alexandra Heminsley)

Mrs. Hemingway gives voice to his four wives - Hadley, Pauline, Martha and Mary - and Naomi Wood's talent is in portraying them all as individual and strong but sympathetic women. Exquisitely written, the Mrs Hemingways finally have their say in this beautiful novel' (Stylist)

[Wood writes] beautifully, with an eye for the perfect detail (Lucy Atkins Sunday Times)

Mrs. Hemingway delves into the lives of Ernest Hemingway's four wives, Wood's meticulous research informing four beautifully written and empathetic novellas. (Hot Books of 2014 Daily Express)

The story of the most famous writer of his generation and the four extraordinary women who married him.