Wives of Los Alamos (Nesbit)

Book Reviews
TaraShea Nesbit’s debut novel breathes life into the domestic side of this story.... Quietly revealing, The Wives of Los Alamos offers an unusual glimpse into a singular community where war, science, and home life collided.
Boston Globe


It becomes easy to slip into the rhythms of Nesbit's prose and imagine the dusty, sunbaked mesas of Los Alamos, where the wives—uprooted from their families, their mail censored, not really sure what their husbands were doing—managed to create a vibrant community of their own.
Entertainment Weekly


A great story.... [Nesbit] evokes the women’s days in lyrical, hypnotic detail: the mountains’ stark beauty, the sand penetrating every corner of the jerry-built houses, the infectious pettiness of people stuck together in close quarters, the sudden bursts of patriotism.
People


(Starred review.) The author’s writing—by turns touching, confiding, and matter-of-fact—perfectly captures the commonalities of the hive mind while also emphasizing the little things that make each wife dissimilar from the pack. This effect intensifies once the nature of the Los Alamos project is revealed and the men and their families grapple with the burden of their new creation. Engrossing, dense, and believable.
Publishers Weekly


Nesbit uses a collective "we" to narrate her story, allowing her to explore contradictory points of view among the women. Novelist Julie Otsuka used this literary device with dramatic effect in The Buddha in the Attic, and readers may find echoes of her distinctive style here.... [W]ell-researched and fast-paced novel...important subject matter and...vivid storytelling. —Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA
Library Journal


(Starred review.) [T]his novel...achieves with no real plot and no real main character [yet] is astounding.... We meet the key figures of Los Alamos but from the perspective of women on the outside of their historic work on the Gadget.... Nesbit brings alive questions of war and power that dog us to this day. —Lynn Weber
Booklist


(Starred review.) The scientists' wives tell the story of daily life in Los Alamos during the creation of the atomic bomb, in Nesbit's lyrical, captivating historical debut.... While the husbands and a few women scientists spend the bulk of their time in the "Tech Area," the wives, many highly educated with abandoned careers, cope with their new domestic realities... There are rumors of musical beds....as time passes in this insular world. Nesbit artfully...creat[es] an emotional tapestry of time and place.
Kirkus Reviews