The Doctor's Wife (Moore novel)

The Doctor's Wife is a novel by Brian Moore, published in 1976. The story centers on Sheila Redden, a forty-year-old Belfast woman on holiday in the south of France with her husband, Kevin, a successful but emotionally distant doctor. While in France, Sheila experiences a sexual awakening and embarks on an affair with a younger American man named Tom Lowry. The novel explores themes of marital dissatisfaction, female desire, the constraints of societal expectations, and the search for personal fulfillment. Sheila's internal conflict is a significant aspect of the narrative, as she grapples with the potential consequences of her actions on her family and her reputation within her tightly-knit Catholic community in Belfast. The novel examines the contrast between the perceived freedom of her affair and the responsibilities of her marriage and family life.