The Paris Wife - Paula McLain

The Paris Wife - Paula McLain (2011)

While I have read a few books lately that I couldn't wait to finish, this one was the joy of reading one you didn't want to end.  Right from the beginning, I think Paul McLain did a fantastic job of retelling a tale of a girl falling in love with a boy.  In this case Hadley Richardson, who in her late twenties falls in love with a young Ernest Hemingway.  I felt like I could feel the emotions of her waiting for his letters, and it was a great start to the novel.

Once married, the young couple set off for Paris, where they life in a squalid flat but socalise with the literary greats of the time.  As he gains more confindence and his writing becomes more well known, Ernest begins to slip away from his relationship with his wife, flirting with the young things in his circle. Hedley begins to realise that she will be unable to hang onto Ernest, that things have changed, and that she doesn't want to share him.  You can feel her pain, as her love slips and Ernest is lost.

A 5/5 - it is hard to fault and may be one of the more memorable reads I have read this year.