Sonja's Walger's new book, Wifehouse, traces the life of a woman who’s always been defined as a wife, mother, and rule follower – until she decides to put her own happiness first. Told over the course of one year, through the shifting perspectives of wife, husband, lover, best friend and children, the narrative reveals a contradictory, nuanced portrait of a woman who walks away from every role that tradition and society have expected of her:

'Annie and Hector have been hosting their friends Candace, Edouard, and their son, Remy, in the guest house of their Connecticut home for many months while their friends’ home undergoes renovations. As a thank-you, Candace gifts Annie French lessons with twenty-six-year-old local French tutor, Thierry. Hector, an actor, goes to film on location, leaving Annie to single-parent their two kids. As the lessons progress, she finds herself unexpectedly vulnerable to the charms of a man closer in age to her own teenage daughter than to her own. A new life for Annie emerges, one she could never have foreseen.'

Sonja will be spreaking at an event in Blackwells (48-51 Broad Street, OX1 3BQ) on Monday 20 April at 7pm. She is looking forward to her return to Oxford: 

"I spent the last twenty-six years living and working in Los Angeles as an actress and despite many trips home over the years, I have only been back to Oxford once since leaving. So it feels momentous to present my book at Blackwell’s, a place in which I spent so many wistful hours (and pounds). I fully expect to be a nostalgic puddle by the end of the evening."

Wifehouse is technically Sonja's second novel; her first, Lion, was published in the U.S. by New York Review of Books last year and will be published by Bonnier Books in the U.K. in 2027.

Tickets to hear Sonja speak at Blackwells are available here.