This book blends fact and fiction, telling the present-day fictional story of Jordan, a young man whose mother has recently been charged with the murder of her polygamist husband, alongside the journals and 'non-fiction' accounts of early Mormon polygamists. This book was absolutely fascinating! Aside from the stories being told, the format was unique. I downloaded the Audible version and started listening. Whatever the reason, after this book popped up on my recommendations for the umpteenth time, I was intrigued.

Recently, I have been seeing a lot of reviews and advertisements for 'The 19th Wife' popping up everywhere. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.Īnd as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith. Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense.

Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff