Happy Book Birthday to Karma Brown’s RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE, out today from Viking! The praise is ramping up and we are so excited for this book to get into the hands of readers!
The list of territories sold is growing too:
Canada – Viking
Czech – Beta
Brazil – Verso
Bulgaria – Kragozor
Germany – Bertlesmann
Italy – D’APlaneta
UK/Commonwealth – Legend
Ukraine – Knigolove
US – Dutton
The Every Girl included it in their roundup of the 10 Most Anticipated Books of Winter
It was one of PARADE’s December Round up of books to pre-order now
A She Reads pick for their list of most anticipated women’s fiction 2020
And the New York Post included it in their Best Books of the Week Round up, December 29/2019
” …Alice Hale suddenly becomes that woman – the one who reluctantly leaves behind a dream job to follow her husband and become a suburban housewife. She becomes obsessed with the house’s previous owner, a 1950s housewife named Nellie, and uses her as a guide. But Alice soon discovers a sinister side to Nellie’s picture perfect life, just as pressures start to grow in her own marriage. Honey, we’re home.” – Elle magazine January 2020 print edition.
“A cookbook connects two women decades apart in Karma Brown’s RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE…Brown deftly unravels their stories.” – Real Simple January 2020 print edition
“Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a bold, intoxicating, page-turner. Karma Brown has long been a favorite of mine and this book is proof she just keeps getting better and better. This is a thrilling, audacious story about women daring to take control.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones and the Six
“Recipe for a Perfect Wife is that wonderful combination of fun to read, thought provoking, and mystery. Told in the voices of two women living in different decades and sprinkled with recipes and advice on how to be a good wife, it makes the reader consider how the roles of women have changed and how they’ve stayed the same. Karma Brown made me smile and gasp in equal measure, and reach for my mom’s old recipe box.” —Ann Hood, bestselling author of The Knitting Club
“Karma Brown has outdone herself with best book yet. Dual storylines set decades apart offer one of the most emotionally stirring explorations of women’s lives I have ever read. Recipe for a Perfect Wife is page-turning look at identity, love, legacy, marriage, and yes–food. I devoured it!” —Jamie Brenner, bestselling author of Drawing Home
“I already knew that Karma Brown’s contemporary novels are exemplars of thoughtful, compelling, and truly original fiction. What I didn’t know before reading Recipe For a Perfect Wife is that she is equally at home when writing historical fiction. In her hands, the constrained and often suffocating lives of 1950s women—illuminated in a deftly handled dual narrative that alternates between the present day and 60 years ago—are revealed with real sensitivity, depth, and at times tenderness. And true to Karma Brown, this is also a nail-biter of a tale, and one that kept me up long past my bedtime. This is a delicious and thoroughly satisfying book.” —Jennifer Robson, bestselling author of The Gown
“Recipe for a Perfect Wife is as witty, charming, and insightful as anything Karma Brown has written to date, but it’s also got something more: it cuts straight to the heart of modern marriage by going back in time. Flawless transitions between past and present remind us of how far we’ve come while Brown’s penetrating prose deftly underscores the importance of staying the course on the journey ahead. This timely novel is alarming and unforgettable, illuminating and ominous—and perfect for your next book club discussion!” —Marissa Stapley, bestselling author of The Last Resort
“Recipe for a Perfect Wife masterfully bridges the lives of two women, living sixty years apart, who refuse to fall victim to the patriarchy. While Karma Brown’s signature style remains, it’s laced with something sinister and dark. A brilliant, brooding, timely novel, fraught with tension, that packs a punch. Brown knows how to keep readers riveted until the very last page.” —Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl
“A sly, smart look at two women across two different decades as they navigate marriage, secrets, and society’s expectations. Brown’s vivid storytelling deftly explores the joys and limitations of the role of wife—a wonderful read.” —Fiona Davis, bestselling author of The Chelsea Girls
“Brown ratchets up the tension and pulls off a surprising—but satisfying—ending [in Recipe for a Perfect Wife]. An engaging and suspenseful look at how the patriarchy shaped women’s lives in the 1950s and continues to do so today.” —Kirkus
“[Brown] excels at bringing the complexities of women’s lives to the page, and her latest novel questions how much has really changed for women over the last 60 years. The pacing is brisk, the characters are appealing, and both time lines are equally well realized. Thoughtful, clever, and surprisingly dark.”—Booklist
“A powerful, thought-provoking story about the choices that ultimately come to define and liberate two women who lived 60 years apart.” —Shelf Awareness
“In Karma Brown’s Recipe for a Perfect Wife (Dutton), 60 years separates two women who connect through a vintage cookbook, an old house and their fight for a place in a patriarchal society.” —PARADE, Books We Love Column
“Readers familiar with Brown’s other novels (“Come Away with Me,” “The Choices We Make,” “In This Moment” and “The Life Lucy Knew”) will be delighted with Brown’s handling of this material, which transcends decades. As always, Brown entertains as she provokes thought and discussion. “Perfect Wife” is not as straightforward as it seems at first glance or as it sounds in this review. (We won’t reveal the intriguing plot twist.) Let’s just say that Nellie brings an increasingly sinister and unexpected element to the plot, which is all the richer for it.” —Florida Times Union
When Alice Hale reluctantly leaves a promising career in publicity, following her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. However, she is determined to become a writer–and to work hard to build the kind of life her husband dreams of, complete with children.
At first, the old house seems to resent Alice as much as she resents it, but when she finds an old cookbook buried in a box in the basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook’s previous owner: 1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she begins to settle into her new surroundings, even as her friends and family grow concerned that she has embraced them too fully: wearing vintage dresses and pearls like a 1950s housewife, making elaborate old-fashioned dishes like Baked Alaska, and drifting steadily away from her usual pursuits.
Alice justifies the changes merely as research for her novel…but when she discovers that Nellie left clues about her own life within the cookbook’s pages–and in a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to Nellie’s mother–she quickly realizes that the housewife’s secrets may have been anything but harmless. As she uncovers a more sinister side to Nellie’s marriage and with pressure mounting in her own relationship, Alice realizes that to protect herself she must harbour and hatch a few secrets of her own…
Karma Brown is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of the novels Come Away With Me, The Choices We Make, In This Moment, and The Life Lucy Knew. In addition to her novels, Brown’s writing has appeared in publications such as Self, Redbook, Canadian Living, Today’s Parent, and Chatelaine.