David Ebershoff - The 19th Wife

Reviewed by Barbara Simpson on show 2009
this is one of the shortlist for the Galaxy Book Awards 2009 for the Richard & Judy Book Club category.
For the first time in 6 yrs, Jordan returns from California to Utah to visit his mother - in jail. As a young boy he was expelled from his family's secretive polygamous Mormon sect. Now his father has been found shot dead in front of his computer and one of his many wives - Jordans mother - is accused of the crime.
over a century earlier, Ann Eliza Young, 19th wife of Brigham Young, second prophet of the Mormon church, tells the sensational story of how she battled for her freedom from her powerful husband, to lead a crusade to end polygamy in the US.
The two stories are interwoven and between them expose the misery caused to wives and children by the Mormons' belief that men should take asmany wives as they can to father a new generation who will spread the word of God throughout the world.
As someone who knew very little about the Mormon Church, I found the book interesting and informative. The two stories, particularly the one written by Ann Eliza Young, are fascinating as is Jordan's struggle to prove his mother's innocence against the violence and fanaticism of those in the sect who have found themselves increasingly isolated by modern America.
It is very well written and absorbing and I can throughly recommend it.