The Books Behind the Summer's Best Movies

In The Wife, out August 3, Glenn Close plays Joan, the longtime spouse of novelist Joe Castleman, who's just won the Nobel Prize in literature. Reaching the pinnacle of literary achievement ought to be a thrill, but Joan is chafing at decades of stifling her own ambitions to play the muse for her unfaithful husband. Worse, upon their arrival in Stockholm, a biographer has some nosy questions for Joan about her relationship to Joe and his work. Meg Wolitzer's piercing 2003 novel doesn't give Joe a prize nearly as illustrious as the Nobel—they're off to Finland for the made-up Helsinki Prize—and the book gives the biographer only a walk-on role. The biggest distinction, though, is that the novel is delivered in Joan's voice as she recalls not just her marriage but also the pervasive sexism in the literary world, which Wolitzer attacks with dishy, sharp enthusiasm.