The Doctor's Wife
Written by Elizabeth Brundage
Narrated by Robert Petkoff and Ellen Archer
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
So begins The Doctor's Wife, a stunning debut novel about four people and the cataclysmic intersection of their lives. Michael is a rising OB/GYN at a prominent private practice in Albany, New York; he also moonlights at a local women's health clinic. But Annie, his wife, has become tired of her workaholic husband's absences, and the soccer-mom lifestyle has worn thin. She begins a passionate love affair with bad-boy, fading celebrity painter Simon Haas-an affair that quickly goes awry when Simon's wife Lydia, who is also the model upon whom he built his career, discovers the truth. Abortion, local evangelism, marital disenchantment, and the rifts of social class: Brundage takes on the fault lines of our era with a deft hand.
Elizabeth Brundage
Elizabeth Brundage is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she earned an MFA in fiction and a James Michener award. Her short fiction has been published in the Greensboro Review, Witness Magazine, and New Letters, and she contributed to the anthology Thicker Than Blood: I’ve Always Meant to Tell You, Letters to Our Mothers.
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Reviews for The Doctor's Wife
20 ratings17 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Knowles family has it all - at least that is the pervasive opinion of everyone who views the family from the outside. Michael and Annie Knowles have been happily married for a decade and have two beautiful children. They both have successful careers and live in a rambling Federal-style farmhouse in High Meadow, New York. While the couple may seem to be living in their own perfect little world, not everything is quite as perfect as it appears.Michael Knowles is a rising star in the field of obstetrics and gynecology at a prominent private practice in Albany, New York. He also moonlights at a local women's health clinic as well. His wife, Annie teaches at a Catholic college for women just outside of town. Although she has only been teaching for just under a year, her courses are incredibly popular with her students.Annie may understand her husband's stressful schedule, but she has also become extremely tired of his constant absences. It seems as if Michael is always on call for his patients, but has almost no time left for her or his children. Annie is certainly lonely; and it is beginning to feel like her role as faithful wife, loving mother, and dutiful teacher has worn thin. She needs something to make her feel alive again; something more than just making bagged lunches for her kids, making excuses for her husband, and making up syllabi for her classes.Enter celebrity painter Simon Haas, whose bad-boy persona captures Annie's attention and interest. To Annie, Simon is everything that Michael is not: creative and passionate, and truly enticing to her soul. He is married to his model and muse, Lydia, a woman who Simon has essentially built his career around. However, Simon and Annie begin a torrid love affair with each other, and Annie discovers that she has so much more to offer someone than just being 'the doctor's wife'.Her relationship with Simon reawakens Annie's passion - but events soon take a dark turn for the Knowles family. The family begins receiving a series of anonymous threats. The reasons behind this increasing intimidation are not entirely clear...Michael has seemingly made many enemies of his own: primarily religious extremists who are opposed to his medical practice. Although, are the most violent threats actually meant for Annie? Because she has also made at least one definite enemy in town: someone who has a cellar full of their own dark secrets. Told from the alternating perspectives of four fascinating and extraordinarily complex characters: Michael, Annie, Simon, and Lydia - The Doctor's Wife by Elizabeth Brundage is a stunning debut novel; a compelling and compulsively readable story that is steeped in psychological suspense, intricate plot twists and intriguing mystery.I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; as this is Ms. Brundage's debut novel, I thought it was actually quite an intriguing plot. In my opinion, the story just proved to me that if a person has the desire to do something, they can justify having to resort to any course of action to achieve that desire. I would give this book a definite A!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I have to say I liked this book much more than I expected. Dr. Michael Knowles is a doctor who volunteers at an abortion clinic and his wife is a college English professor. Simon Haas is an artist/teacher at the same college and his wife is a mentally unstable Christian fundamentalist. This story is about these two couples and how their lives are completely inter-woven. A really good read
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I enjoyed the book. It was somewhat predictable, but not tiring. Good character development and a satisfying ending.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As far as novels go, this one wasn't half bad -- it was somewhat predictable, though, and the love affair that served as the main crux of the plot was described so tepidly that I didn't at all buy it when the people involved professed their love for each other. Perhaps the author has never had a grand and passionate love affair; readers who have, therefore, may find this a bit flat.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of my favorite books of all time. The story has stayed with me for years. The mystery is tangible within beautiful prose. The characters are all ALIVE and the ending is surprising and fully satisfying.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A dark, creepy story of a love triangle. The doctor's wife has an affair with a painter who's wife is involved in a Prolife movement. The doctor volunteers at an abortion clinic. Very creepy character, the painter's wife. Good reading, but not for all.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Holy crap this was a good book! Kept me going and wanting to read it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thought this book was very interesting and quite riveting. I actually picked it up in the supermarket, and this is probably a little biased, but I never expect much from supermarket reads, but I was pleasantly surprised.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A psychological thriller that kept me turning the pages. Told in flashbacks, this is the story of a doctor and his wife, living in the country outside Albany, NY. He starts doing part time volunteer work for a low cost/free abortion clinic and she begins teaching at a school. These two events will forever change their lives. While she has an affair with a reclusive artist now teaching at the same school, her husband draws the artist's wife's ire for his work as an abortion doctor. These things eventually endanger their lives. While I enjoyed the book, and found it hard to put down, I wished that some reasonable anti-abortion folk had been portrayed instead of them all being so militantly against abortion.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doctor’s Wife. Elizabeth Brundage. 2004. This was a very suspenseful book. The ideal family meets the dysfunctional family. A vaguely dissatisfied and adjunct professor/housewife finds herself drawn into an illicit affair with a local artist/professor when her busy OB/GYN husband decides to work weekends at the local women’s clinic. The artist’s young wife and muse gets involved with a religious group that violently apposes abortion and wages a vicious campaign against the clinic. I enjoyed the descriptions of small college parties and politics, and the descriptions of the artist’s studio and his paintings. The novel is told in flashbacks. The artist’s wife’s madness is vividly described as it is gradually revealed throughout the novel.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Why did I ever pick up this book? It started off ok-ish, and just got slimier and slimier as it went along.1. Infidelity. I can’t see the mother just jumping into bed with the loser in the first place, and certainly not at the local motel every chance she gets, especially during the period of time that her children have been threatened.2. Pedophilia. Implied incest. Mental issues. (Seems like every other book I’ve read lately deals with someone having mental problems. Dealing with a manic-depressive paranoid-schizophrenic in-law, I’m just not in the mood to keep reading about mental problems in my get-away-from-it-all readings.)3. Abortion. In the abortion debate, the two sides aren’t monsters and angels. There are people trying to do the right thing as they see it on each side. Painting all of one side as monsters is not realistic. Three strikes! You’re OUT of my library!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5After finishing the book, I concluded that the main character was indeed the Doctor's Wife, but only barely. The Doctor, the Doctor's Wife's Lover, or the Doctor's Wife's Lover's Lunatic Wife could very easily have taken over as the main character and title.The ending left much to be desired...but then so does life. I think this was one of the appropriate times where not wrapping up the loose ends serves the reader better.For me the pro choice v pro life story was secondary as the fascinating unraveling of the characters was the most dramatic aspect of the book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a great read...suspenseful, scary, sexy, and smooth as silk writing made this one of my favorites of the year! All I can say is get it ~ read it. I cannot wait to get my hands on more by this gifted writer.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strange, but interesting read. Reminds me how there are some really wacky people out there!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a book that I couldn't put down. Just the first line of the book grabbed my attention and I was hooked. The author's use of alternating narrators added to the intrigue. I found the ending to be extremely suspenseful; although I did feel some sympathy toward Lydia and her sense of loss. The ending was totally climactic. This was an excellent read!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written characters and good plot. I really liked this book and I recommend it. Brundage writes the characters in such a way that you both get angry at them, but also can relate to why they are the way there are. There were a few loose ends that weren't tied up (I would've liked to know more about Lydia's history), but overall, very good book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder! Intrigue! Abortion! This book has it all! If you want a book that is a character driven suspense thriller, you've come to the right place!