Recipe for a Perfect Wife

Synopsis

When Alice Hale leaves a career to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in the basement, she becomes captivated by its previous owner: 1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the pages Nellie left clues about her life. Soon Alice learns that while a Baked Alaska may seem harmless, Nellie's secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister, even dangerous, side to Nellie's marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own."A bold, intoxicating, page-turner" TAYLOR JENKINS REID"A brilliant, brooding, timely novel" MARY KUBICA"Explores the joys and limitations of the role of wife" FIONA DAVIS"A nail-biter of a tale, and one that kept me up long past my bedtime" JENNIFER ROBSON"One of the most emotionally stirring explorations of women's lives I have ever read" JAMIE BRENNER"Perfect for your next book club discussion!" MARISSA STAPLEY"How the roles of women have changed and how they've stayed the same" ANN HOOD"Questions how much has really changed for women over the last 60 years" BOOKLIST"How the patriarchy shaped women's lives in the 1950s and continues to do so today" KIRKUS