My favourite wife

By Tony Parsons

Subjects: English, Shanghai (china), fiction, Fiction, family life, general, English fiction, Manners and customs, London (england), fiction, Legal stories, Interpersonal relations, Fiction, Mistresses, Social life and customs, Married people, fiction, Lawyers' spouses

Description: Hot shot young lawyer Bill Holden and his wife Becca move with their four-year-old daughter to the booming, gold-rush city of Shanghai. It is a place of opportunity and temptation, where fortunes are made and foreign marriages come apart in spectacular fashion. Bill's law firm houses the Holden family in Paradise Mansions - a luxury apartment block full of 'second wives': beautiful young women like JinJin Li, ex-school teacher, crossword addict, dedicated roller skater and the Holdens' neighbour. After Becca witnesses a near-tragedy, she returns temporarily to London with Holly - and Bill and JinJin are thrown together. Bill wants to be a better man than the millionaire who keeps JinJin Li as a second wife. Better than any man who cheats. Becca is his best friend. But in the end, can he give JinJin anything different - can he give her the love she deserves? And can he love his wife, too?