Mrs. Hemingway
04 December 2025Synopsis
Winner of the British Library Writer’s Award
Shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize
Mr. Ernest Hemingway: genius, husband, philanderer. Across the decades he will become a legendary writer. But behind every great man . . . In Mrs. Hemingway, Naomi Wood retells the lives and passions of the women he loved – and betrayed – as we follow the marriages of Hadley, Pauline, Martha and Mary. Four singular, brilliant, and complicated women, each wife will share the title of Mrs. Hemingway; each has their own story of the complex man at the centre of their bond.
Moving, radiant and exquisitely told, Naomi Wood’s Mrs. Hemingway is a stunning exploration of the life of one man through the women that knew him.
‘It takes an unusual skill to keep someone reading a story to which they think they already know the ending. But Mrs. Hemingway is so beautifully written, and evocative, that I could not put it down until the last page’ - Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You
Details
04 December 2025
9781035062751Reviews
It takes an unusual skill to keep someone reading a story to which they think they already know the ending. But Mrs. Hemingway is so beautifully written, and evocative, that I could not put it down until the last pageJojo Moyes, author of Me Before You
This is a wonderful book: carefully written, richly imagined and emotionally wise . . . It is all meticulously researched, but, as in the best of Penelope Fitzgerald, the research is worn lightly and never threatens to dominate . . . Even the well-known details of Hemingway's life are made fresh, given a new significance . . . Mrs. Hemingway feels truer than most of the biographies, and more real than many novels. Wood's method is an effective way of getting to grips with the central enigma: Hemingway himself, a man tortured by masculinity. But it is also a sensitive and moving evocation of those women he depended on, who his life often overshadowedDaily Telegraph
Forget everything you thought you knew about Ernest Hemingway’s four wives. In a quartet of searing interlocked portraits, Naomi Wood brings vividly to life the real women who loved and lost the legendary charmer and great writer. Mrs. Hemingway is a luminous, heartbreaking novel. Wood is a writer to watchEllen Feldman, author of Scottsboro and Next to Love
A luminous, intoxicating look at the most important women in the life of a celebrated novelist . . . A passionate novel based on real lives, full of betrayals and moments of heartbreaking intimacy as Wood gives four remarkable women star billingMarie Claire
