The Other Wife

A Novel

By: Jackie Thomas-Kennedy

Narrated by: Nicole Lewis

“Extraordinary. A story about belonging in liminal spaces, and longing for things seemingly just out of reach. A searing, beautiful book.” —Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Come and Get It

"Complex and enduring...We would follow Zuzu anywhere." —Oprah Daily

A big-hearted novel of nostalgia and longing, and a poignant exploration of how we choose to love.

Zuzu met her best friend Cash on the first day of college, and nothing was ever the same. Tall, witty, and popular, his friendship represented a kind of belonging for Zuzu, who had always felt like an outsider growing up biracial in her rural hometown. Though their friendship was charged with longing, it never progressed to romance. Now approaching her forties, Zuzu has built a stable life with her wife Agnes, a steadfast and career-driven lawyer. Yet Zuzu is haunted by the choices that have shaped her: living with her mother instead of her father in childhood, pursuing law over art, and marrying Agnes while harboring complex feelings for Cash.

When a sudden loss pulls Zuzu back to her hometown, the “what ifs” in her mind become louder than ever, and she begins to unwind the turns that have led her here. Will she embrace the choices she’s made, or risk everything for a chance to chase the past? A novel that speaks to unfulfilled desires and the euphoric nostalgia that’s particular to the beginning of middle age, The Other Wife is as heartfelt as it is daring in its deep reckoning with the past and quest for true joy.

Critic reviews

"A marvelous study in how much desire lives in memory, in nostalgia and in fantasy." —The Washington Post

"[An] original love story that paints a compelling and real picture of how our minds pinball through time, seeking in the present some of the thrill and love and validation of old patterns...We would follow Zuzu anywhere." —Oprah Daily

"Vividly rendered...as a portrait of a biracial, bisexual person’s discomfort in the space society allows them, the novel’s lasting effect is nuanced and thought-provoking." —The Star Tribune

“Thomas-Kennedy enthralls with this story about a marriage threatened by class tensions and a messy love triangle… Readers won’t want to miss this aching and all-too-real portrayal of a woman’s search for fulfillment.” —Publishers Weekly

“Extraordinary. A story about belonging in liminal spaces, and longing for things seemingly just out of reach. A searing, beautiful book.” —Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Come and Get It

“A probing, gorgeous novel about the intricacies of desire: for other loves, other lives, other versions of the self…a remarkable debut.” —Kirsten Valdez Quade, author of The Five Wounds

“Humor! Verve! Soul! This novel has it all…The Other Wife sounds and feels both classic and like nothing I've encountered before. —Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of Housemates

"Tender, wise, and thoroughly compelling, The Other Wife teems with the complicated pleasures and desolations of longing. Jackie Thomas-Kennedy knows a great deal about the life-shaping strength of desire." —R. O. Kwon, author of Exhibit

"Captures the dizzy angst of young romance so well that it felt like Jackie Thomas-Kennedy had a surveillance camera in my college dorm room...Following Zuzu over decades as she navigates growing up is a heart-rending, funny and relatable journey. I could not put the book down.
—Jessica Grose, author of Soulmates

“Rich in Zuzu's lifelike conversations and interiority, Thomas-Kennedy's debut is a humbly expansive marriage story and a tale of growing older in lockstep with a version of yourself that gets to stay young.” —Booklist