New York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents
a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American
suburbia as two mothers--a housewife and a battle-hardened
veteran--fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife.
From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a
paradise. Picket fences divide buildings--high and gabled--and the
community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace,
each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and
outside--in lawns and on playgrounds--wildflowers seed themselves in
neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall's
periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network
of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights.
For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a
charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates,
cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow.
Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot
Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a
former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn't want Gren,
didn't plan Gren, and doesn't know how she got Gren, but when she
returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders
erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with
Dylan, Dana's and Willa's worlds collide.
