“Beautiful, devastating and complex.” —
Chicago TribuneThe award-winning debut novel from Jennifer Haigh, author of
BakerTowers,
The Condition, and
Faith, tells the story of Birdie, Joan,and Dinah, three women who marry the same charismatic, predatory, and enigmaticopportunist: Ken Kimble. Resonating with emotional intensity and narrativeinnovation reminiscent of Ann Patchett’s
Bel Canto, Barbara Kingsolver’s
The Poisonwood Bible, and Zora Neale Hurston’s
TheirEyes Were Watching God, Haigh’s
Mrs. Kimble is a timeless story ofgrief, passion, heartache, deception, and the complex riddle of love.
A chameleon, an enigma, all things to all women -- a lifeline to which powerful needs and nameless longings may be attached -- Ken Kimble is revealed through the eyes of the women he seduces: Birdie, his first wife, struggling to hold herself together after his desertion; second wife, Joan, a lonely, tragic heiress who sees her unknowable husband as her last chance for happiness; and Dinah, a beautiful but damaged woman half his age.
“At turns beautiful, devastating and complex,
Mrs. Kimble explores the interplay between deception and vulnerability, betraying Haigh’s ambitious talent in the process.”
