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The Manual for Good Wives

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The Manual for Good Wives

By: Lola Jaye
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About this listen

Everything about Adeline Copplefield is a lie . . .

To the world Mrs Copplefield is the epitome of Victorian propriety: an exemplary society lady who writes a weekly column advising young ladies on how to be better wives.

Only Adeline has never been a good wife or mother; she has no claim to the Copplefield name, nor is she an English lady . . .

Now a black woman, born in Africa, who dared to pretend to be something she was not, is on trial in the English courts with all of London society baying for her blood. And she is ready to tell her story . . .

From the author of The Attic Child, Lola Jaye, comes The Manual for Good Wives, a dual narrative historical novel about love, generational trauma, second chances and hope.

©2025 Lola Jaye (P)2024 Macmillan Publishers International Limited
Historical Fiction
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Critic reviews

I was definitely in tears by the end! There is so much to say about this story. Lola Jaye has given us such a creative way of examining privilege, identity, trauma and whiteness in both eras. (Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish))
The Attic Child could be Lola’s best book yet. Her writing is on another level, with characters and a story that grab you from the first page and don't let go until the very end. Just brilliant. (Dorothy Koomson, author of My Other Husband)
An incredibly important book giving breath to voices we sadly seldom hear, Lola Jaye’s The Attic Child is a beautifully crafted, compelling story crossing continents and time which will undoubtedly break your heart but also make it sing. (Mike Gayle, author of Dinner for Two)

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