The Second Wife Penguin

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Author: Elizabeth Buchan
Publisher: Penguin

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Minty stole her best friend’s husband. Nathan is handsome, successful, and twenty years older than Minty, and when they marry – because Minty is pregnant – it’s all very low-key. Because Nathan has done all of this before: wedding, marriage, children, and he’s confused by Minty’s demands that he erase all trace of his ex-wife, Rose, from his new life.

Minty gives birth to twin boys, and though she loves staying at home with them as they grow up, she misses her job. Nathan can’t understand why she feels the need to return to the workforce, and constantly compares his second wife with his first.

Frustrated and alone, Minty looks for support from her friends, whose own marriages are far from perfect. Paige sees her husband Martin as nothing more than the means to give her the baby she dotes on to the exclusion of all else, and the glamorous, thrice-wedded Gisela is willing to sacrifice love for financial comfort.

Minty struggles to maintain a good relationship with Nathan’s grown-up children from his first marriage, both of whom regard her with suspicion and who have marital issues of their own to sort out. And behind it all is Rose, the perfect first wife, who’s now happy and successful in her own life. But Minty, paranoid and fearful, is convinced that Nathan longs to return to Rose – and only a tragedy can give her the strength to be her own person at last.

This is the sequel to The Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, but can easily be read without reference to the first book. Frank, sometimes cynical, sometimes hopeful, this is an exploration of the varied types of modern marriage and how our worst enemy is usually ourselves.

Favourite line: I’m a great believe in self-help manuals – although, lately, I have found myself wondering if they only add to the confusion by suggesting problems you didn’t know you had.

Minty is a less sympathetic character than Rose in the first book, but Ms Buchan doesn’t demonise her. Minty knows that what she did was unforgivably wrong, but it’s true that often, the best revenge is to live well. Rose’s newfound happiness doesn’t have its source in Nathan, but Minty convinces herself otherwise. Her vulnerability and jealousy are exquisite as she torments herself with her own guilt, the whole thing so painfully real you want to shake her.

A deep, poignant and heartbreaking ‘hen-lit’ book that also lifts the spirits as Minty struggles to face her insecurities, this is a brilliant read. Recommended.