Awards
Orange Prize for Fiction (nominee)
"What a remarkable (and brave) thing: a compassionate, illuminating, and beautifully rendered portrait of a fictional Republican first lady with a life and husband very much like our actual Republican first lady's. Curtis Sittenfeld has written a novel as impressive as it is improbable."
Kurt Andersen


"Curtis Sittenfeld is an amazing writer, and American Wife is a brave and moving novel about the intersection of private and public life in America. Ambitious and humble at the same time, Sittenfeld refuses to trivialize or simplify people, whether real or imagined."
Richard Russo


On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband's presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House - and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, 'almost in opposition to itself.'

A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was seventeen shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck. So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: She was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat. Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie.

As Alice learns to make her way amid the clannish energy and smug confidence of the Blackwell family, navigating the strange rituals of their country club and summer estate, she remains uneasy with her newfound good fortune. And when Charlie eventually becomes President, Alice is thrust into a position she did not seek - one of power and influence, privilege and responsibility. As Charlie's tumultuous and controversial second term in the White House wears on, Alice must face contradictions years in the making: How can she both love and fundamentally disagree with her husband? How complicit has she been in the trajectory of her own life? What should she do when her private beliefs run against her public persona?

In Alice Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry'"a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare.

 
Used availability for Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife


See all available used copies of this book at: Abebooks UK or Abebooks US
 

 

Hardback Editions

February 2009 : Hardback
Title: American Wife (Thorndike Core)
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 1410413322 / 9781410413321 (USA edition)
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Availability: Amazon UK   Amazon   Amazon CA   

January 2009 : Hardback
Title: American Wife (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series) [LARGE PRINT] (Hardcover)
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 0385616481 / 9780385616485 (USA edition)
Publisher: Thorndike Pres
Availability: Amazon UK   

October 2008 : Hardback
Title: American Wife
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 0330466682 / 9780330466684 (UK edition)
Publisher: Picador
Availability: Amazon CA   Amazon UK   Amazon   

September 2008 : Hardback
Title: American Wife: A Novel
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 1400064759 / 9781400064755 (USA edition)
Publisher: Random House
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

Paperback Editions

July 2009 : Paperback
Title: American Wife
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 0552775541 / 9780552775540 (UK edition)
Publisher: Black Swan
Availability: Amazon CA   Amazon UK   Amazon   

February 2009 : Paperback
Title: American Wife: A Novel
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 0812975405 / 9780812975406 (USA edition)
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

October 2008 : Paperback
Title: American Wife
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 0385616414 / 9780385616416 (USA edition)
Publisher: Doubleday
Availability: Amazon   Amazon UK   

January 2008 : Paperback
Title: American Wife
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 0385616740 / 9780385616744 (USA edition)
Publisher: Doubleday
Availability: Amazon UK   Amazon CA   

September 2008 : Paperback
Title: American Wife
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 0330468073 / 9780330468077 (UK edition)
Publisher: Picador
Availability: Amazon UK   Amazon CA   

Audio Editions

July 2011 : Audio CD
Title: American Wife
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 1407434632 / 9781407434636 (UK edition)
Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks
Availability: Amazon UK   

September 2008 : Audio CD
Title: American Wife: A Novel
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 0739323865 / 9780739323861 (USA edition)
Publisher: Random House Audio
Availability: Amazon   Amazon CA   Amazon UK   

2008 : Audio CD
Title: American Wife
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: 1415956979 / 9781415956977 (USA edition)
Publisher: Books On Tape
Availability: Amazon   

Kindle Editions

September 2012 : Kindle edition
Title: American Wife
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: B008F9PM0Q
Publisher: Transworld Digital
Availability: Amazon UK   

August 2008 : Kindle edition
Title: American Wife: A Novel
Author(s):: Curtis Sittenfeld
ISBN: B001ANUR5O
Publisher: Random House
Availability: Amazon   

 


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