Wifehouse

"One of my favorite books of 2026. . . . The specific pleasures offered by Wifehouse are considerable. . . .Walger's prose is lyrical and evocative, an accrual of fine-grained observations that bring life to the page."-Biblioracle, Chicago Tribune A woman who's always been defined as a wife, mother, and rule follower makes the complicated choice to put her own happiness first in this stunning novel that's perfect for readers of Miranda July, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, and Sarah Manguso. Annie and Hector have been hosting their friends Candace, Edouard, and their son, Remy, in the guest house of their Connecticut home for many months while their friends' home undergoes renovations. As a thank-you, Candace gifts Annie French lessons with twenty-six-year-old local French tutor, Thierry. Hector, an actor, goes to film on location, leaving Annie-newly bereaving her mother-to single-parent their two kids. As the lessons progress, she finds herself unexpectedly vulnerable to the charms of a man closer in age to her own teenage daughter than to her own. A new life for Annie emerges, one she could never have foreseen. Told over the course of one year, through the shifting perspectives of wife, husband, lover, best friend and children, Walger paints a contradictory, nuanced portrait of a woman who walks away from every role that tradition and society have expected of her.

Sonya Walger is an award-winning actress, best known for her role as Penny Widmore on Lost and Molly Cobb in the first three seasons of Apple TV+'s For All Mankind. She studied English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford and was the host of the literary podcast, Bookish. Her first book, Lion, a semiautobiographical novel was published by New York Review Books in February 2025.