Book Nine: The 19th Wife

The 19th Wife, David Ebershoff



What are the chances of reading two Wife books in a row? Also on my reading pile is The Zookeeper's Wife, and I wish I could say that The Time Traveler's Wife was also there, but I'd be lying. But really, if you are as obsessed with Mormons as I am, you will find this very, very interesting. It's half modern-day polygamist murder mystery, half pretending-to-be-non-fiction "biography" of Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's 19th wife who became a vocal opponent to polygamy and helped bring about it's downfall: these two stories bounce back and forth throughout the novel. I don't want to say any more than that about the plot (and really, when do I ever?), but honestly, this book rules. It almost falls apart at the end with a somewhat too tidy finale, but the rest of the book more than made up for that.