The 19th Wife

A Novel

De: David Ebershoff

Narrado por: Kimberly Farr, Rebecca Lowman, Arthur Morey

Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.

Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense.

It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife.

Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds - a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.

And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’ s search, listeners are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith.

©2008 David Ebershoff (P)2008 Random House, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“This exquisite tour de force explores the dark roots of polygamy and its modern-day fruit in a renegade cult...Ebershoff brilliantly blends a haunting fictional narrative by Ann Eliza Young, the real-life 19th “rebel” wife of Mormon leader Brigham Young, with the equally compelling contemporary narrative of fictional Jordan Scott, a 20-year-old gay man...With the topic of plural marriage and its shattering impact on women and powerless children in today's headlines, this novel is essential reading for anyone seeking understanding of the subject.” (Publishers Weekly - starred review)

More than multiple wives

When I think Mormon, I think many wives, Utah, and a pageant in Upstate NY, pretty much in that order. This book offered an insight into the Mormon religion and customs that I hadn't heard before and much, much more than my initial thoughts of Mormonism. The book is a little difficult to follow switching from reader to reader with the various research findings, but worth the effort.

Fascinating insights into Mormonism

Would you consider the audio edition of The 19th Wife to be better than the print version?

I didn't read the print version

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Different voices for different perspectivs.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, although it wasn't possible.

Any additional comments?

This book gave fascinating insights into Mormonism and polygenous marriage in the context of absorbing fiction.

Educational and a riveting story at the same time

enjoyed jumping back and forth from historical to present day, fiction and non fiction all wrapped up in one.

Amazing

I loved this book. I learned a lot about Mormons and polygamy reading this. This book contains two parallel stories, one of modern day polygamy and one of the beginnings of polygamy in Utah and how it became illegal. I live in Utah, but am not a native, so I found this absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend it to anyone as it is a riveting story.

Almost couldn't stop when I needed to do things!

I liked all of the voices and the stories woven together! I made the mistake of starting this during law school finals and would take little breaks to listen to bits of it but I almost couldn't stop to go back to work!

I will never not recommend this book!

Any additional comments?

I bought this book totally by chance some years back, while on vacation in Brussels (I had forgotten to bring a book, so I went into the first bookstore I could find). What originally called to me was the opportunity to get a closer look at a religion and a world, that I have only heard about on the news – and NEVER for the good reasons.

The book is divided into three narratives; a modern day murder-mystery, with a 19th wife at the centre, the true tale of Eliza Young – a 19th wife herself, and fictional scholars talking about Eliza Young and her book. When I read this book the first time I really fell in love with the first part, was intrigued by the second, and found the third a bit superfluous. But this time around I love all three parts, coming to the conclusion that you need them all, to really get at what celestial marriage is all about.

All in all this book is just an awesome read, and the story as well as the characters will stay with you long after you reached the (although 600+ pages long) all so soon end.

I will say,though that not all narrators are equally good...

Five stars!

Loved it so much! Now that the book is over, I miss the characters and narrators. Wow, highly recommend.

Interesting story, but long

I hung in there and listened to the whole story. It was so confusing at first listening to the past and present 19th wives but I got it after a while. This si a completely new topic for me so I had the fascination of something new. It is a long story and I think I may have missed big chunks and didn't care enough to go back. The story was very interesting.

I would recommend it to some people...

Here is the text I sent my mom after listening to this book...too lazy to write a separate review. (side note-I grew up in Utah, but am not Mormon so that gives me a unique perspective here):
"I just finished listening to the audiobook of The 19th Wife... I don't know if you would like it, but it was really interesting. It's a mix between a modern story of a polygamist wife in southern Utah who gets accused of murdering her husband and the true story of one of Brigham Young's wives who left him and went on a campaign across the country to successfully help outlaw polygamy. It has a lot of Mormon history but I liked it cuz there was stuff I didn't know even though I was around it for 30 years and also talked a lot about Salt Lake history so I have been most of the places they referenced and could imagine them."

long and mind numbing

I made it to the end. I deserve an award for blind optimism. ....yay me. I feel dead inside now.