The Other Wife Paperback by Jackie Thomas-Kennedy

Product Details

• Publisher: Riverhead Books (2026-07-14)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 304 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780593851623
• Item Weight: 215.46 grams
• Dimensions: 20.14 x 13.03 x 1.65 cm

“Extraordinary. A story about belonging in liminal spaces, and longing for things seemingly just out of reach. A searing, beautiful book.” —Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Come and Get It

"Complex and enduring...We would follow Zuzu anywhere." —Oprah Daily

What would you risk for a second chance with the one who got away?

Zuzu met Cash on the first day of college, and nothing was ever the same. Tall, witty, and popular, Cash’s friendship represented a kind of belonging for Zuzu, who had always felt like an outsider growing up mixed race in her rural hometown. Though their friendship was charged with longing, it never progressed to romance. Now approaching her forties, Zuzu has built a stable life with her wife Agnes, but she’s haunted by the choices that have shaped her.

When a sudden loss pulls Zuzu back to her hometown, she begins to unwind the turns that have led her here. Will she embrace the life she’s made, or risk everything for a chance to chase the past? A novel that speaks to the unfulfilled desires and euphoric nostalgia that’s particular to the beginning of middle age, The Other Wife is as heartfelt as it is daring in its deep reckoning with the past and quest for true joy.

About the Author

Jackie Thomas-Kennedy was awarded a Stegner Fellowship in 2014. She is the winner of the 2019 Stella Kupfer­berg Memorial Short Story Prize, and her work has been recorded for NPR’s Selected Shorts. Her stories have appeared in Ameri­can Short Fiction, One Story, Electric Lit­erature, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University School of the Arts and lives in California.