Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins - New Zealand

Novel About My Wife is my third Orbis Terrarum read. It's by New Zealander Emily Perkins. I bought the book from Johannesburg in March because I really felt the storyline was calling out to me and I was facinated by the cover of the book.

Tom Stone and Ann are in their forties and expecting their first child. Life is good although their finances seem to be spiralling out of control. There's a shadow looming over them because Ann is sure she's being followed by a mysterious homeless guy who Tom never manages to see. As the pregnancy progresses, Ann's behaviour becomes stranger and stranger..

I'm going to be brutally honest. I did not like this book. I found it very hard to follow and had to go back and re-read sections just to understand what was going on - maybe it was all too complex for me? The life Tom and Ann are living is not pleasant. They try to survivie their financial troubles and all the things going wrong around them. They're living quite a sad life actually.

But saying that, this story did affect me somehow. So even though I didn't like the book, it did make an impression. I felt that it was very disturbing and Ann's delusional behaviour frightening. After finishing the book I started having really vivid dreams which weren't entirely positive and I'm sure it's because of this read.

I'd love to hear what other bloggers thought of this book!