How To Be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman is a haunting literary debut about a woman who begins having visions that make her question everything she knows
Marta and Hector have been married for a long time. Through the good and bad; through raising a son and sending him off to life after university. So long, in fact, that Marta finds it difficult to remember her life before Hector. He has always taken care of her, and she has always done everything she can to be a good wife-as advised by a dog-eared manual given to her by Hector's aloof mother on their wedding day.
But now, something is changing. Small things seem off. A flash of movement in the corner of her eye, elapsed moments that she can't recall. Visions of a blonde girl in the darkness that only Marta can see. Perhaps she is starting to remember-or perhaps her mind is playing tricks on her. As Marta's visions persist and her reality grows more disjointed, it's unclear if the danger lies in the world around her, or in Marta herself. The girl is growing more real every day, and she wants something.
"On the surface the book is a highly competent chiller, but beneath, like a silent, bolted . . . room, there's a much bigger story about the nature of feminine experience. An accomplished debut."
Hilary Mantel, New York Times bestselling author of Wolf Hall
"A compelling, twisty tale of deception and distrust. Beautifully written, and very clever."
Elizabeth Haynes, author of Into the Darkest Corner
"How To Be a Good Wife is at once claustrophobic, startling and hauntingly beautiful. It's that amazing, awful kind of book that will stay with you long after you wish it would let you go."
