The Lunar Housewife

Praise

“An elegant novel of political and cultural suspense. . . the Cold War intrigue it conjures is gripping, and Louise’s dilemmas and adventures will hold sympathetic readers in thrall.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“The Lunar Housewife is wonderfully entertaining and slyly subversive. Caroline Woods pens a story that will linger in the memory!”
—Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network

“The Lunar Housewife is written with tremendous skill and an ingenious form. Caroline Woods is an imaginative artist, and this is serious fiction that resonates with a keen intelligence.”
–Ha Jin, National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner award winning author of Waiting

“Caroline Woods’ The Lunar Housewife is a smart, stylish page-turner that is at once a Cold War spy thriller, historical fiction, a sci-fi book-within-a-book, and a thumping good read. Woods keeps the tension almost unbearably high making it impossible to put down.”
–Lara Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept

“This cleverly inventive yet authentic–feeling early Cold War thriller from Woods (Fräulein M.) takes on the New York publishing world from a woman’s perspective, while containing a novella-length American-Soviet space romance written by the protagonist with parallels to her own life. . . The suspense builds as Woods shifts between the main narrative and the space romance, which provides a window into Louise’s frustrated mindset about gender dynamics, politics, and power. This is a delightfully different variety of spy story.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Woods’ historical thriller tells two related stories, one about the CIA’s audacious plan to use American literature as propaganda against the Soviets, the other about one woman’s attempt to escape the cloister in which men are determined to confine her . . . The tantalizing slice of literary history, combined with the revealing look at good-old-boy sexism in postwar publishing, will draw readers across multiple genres.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“An addictive binge of a read that’s equal parts intelligent introspection and nail-biting suspense.”
—BookPage

“This book is perfect . . . subversive, wildly creative.”
–Writer’s Digest

“Woods offers up a heady mix of espionage, historical fiction, and literary mystery . . . set in a richly-evoked midcentury downtown New York literary scene, where her protagonist finds herself somewhere at the intersection of the artistic vanguard and the spymaster’s crosshairs.”
–CrimeReads

“Woods goes for the jugular of American pieties, intellectual assumptions, and social norms, without sparing the Iron Curtain’s side.”
—Avenue

“From page one you know you’re in the hands of an immensely talented novelist. Caroline Woods takes on the 1950s Cold War era by spinning a historical thriller filled with censorship, espionage and danger that leaves both the narrator and reader wondering who and what they can trust. A sheer delight from start to finish.” 
–Renee Rosen, bestselling author of The Social Graces

“A young woman navigates the treacherous terrain of Manhattan’s early 1950s literary scene . . . The truth, as Woods suggests . . . is more complicated: The U.S. establishment is not just blacklisting artists, but, through violence and/or bribery, censoring any cultural reference that does not glorify American capitalism. A sinister message that may not be all that far-fetched.”
–Kirkus

“Both the suspense and the tongue-in-cheek, Hitchcockian tone propel events forward. The fact that the plot is inspired by ‘the true story of the CIA’s use of American arts and letters as propaganda during the Cold War,’ as Woods explains in her author’s note, makes the book even more fascinating.”
–Historical Novel Society

“A wild, rollicking ride that shows us the 1950s were anything but simpler times. Woods deftly rockets the reader through the Cold War, spy networks, living on the moon, and even into the life of Ernest Hemingway. Louise is the perfect feminist heroine, punching through the lies and misogyny to find her own truth in the world. Truly the most fun I’ve had reading a book in a long time.”
–Crystal King, author of Feast of Sorrow and The Chef’s Secret

“The Lunar Housewife is a smart and stylish Cold War page-turner about a young woman who uncovers suspicious forces at work in the male-dominated literary world of 1950s New York City. I loved this book and didn’t want it to end!”
–Elise Hooper, author of Angels of the Pacific

“Atmospheric writing pulled me in from the very first pages and an engaging novel-within a-novel kept me enthralled until the final words. A brilliant and wholly entertaining execution.”
–Jenni L. Walsh, author of Becoming Bonnie and A Betting Woman

“Caroline Woods gives us two-for-one in this artful mystery: a young writer negotiating the New York City publishing world in the 1950s, and the sci-fi novel she is writing based on her experience of sexism and intrigue, secrets and deceit. “
–Daphne Kalotay, author of Russian Winter and Sight Reading