Mrs Kimble

Covering a span of twenty five years, Mrs Kimble tells the story of three women married in succession to the same man -- a charismatic opportunist named Ken Kimble. Told from the perspective of each Mrs Kimble, it offers a mesmerising look at how three very different women become accomplices in their own deception. We see Ken Kimble through the eyes of the women he seduces: his first wife, Birdie, who struggles to hold herself together in the months following his desertion; his second wife, Joan, a lonely heiress recovering from personal tragedy, who sees in Kimble her last chance at happiness; and finally Dinah, a beautiful but damaged woman half his age. Woven throughout is the story of Kimble's son Charlie, whose life is forever affected by a father he barely remembers. Ken Kimble is able to become, for a while at least, all things to all women. To each of the three Mrs Kimbles, he appears as a hero, to whom powerful needs and nameless longings may be attached. Only later do they glimpse the truth about this elusive, unknowable man.

About Jennifer Haigh