--- product_id: 6223853 title: "The Wives of Los Alamos: A Novel" price: "157.68 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/6223853-the-wives-of-los-alamos-a-novel store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # The Wives of Los Alamos: A Novel **Price:** 157.68 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Wives of Los Alamos: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** 157.68 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/6223853-the-wives-of-los-alamos-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, an Indies Choice Debut Pick, an desertcart Best Book of the Month, and winner of two New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. The “haunting . . . impressive” ( NYTBR ) National Bestseller―imagining the untold human history of the making of the atomic bomb. They arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret―including what their husbands were doing at the lab. Though they were strangers, they joined together―adapting to a landscape as fierce as it was absorbing, full of the banalities of everyday life and the drama of scientific discovery. While the bomb was being invented, babies were born, friendships were forged, children grew up, and Los Alamos gradually transformed into a real community: one that was strained by the words they couldn’t say out loud or in letters, and by the freedom they didn’t have. But the end of the war would bring even bigger challenges, as the scientists and their families struggled with the burden of their contribution to the most destructive force in the history of mankind. The Wives of Los Alamos is a testament to a remarkable group of real-life women and an exploration of a crucial, largely unconsidered aspect of one of the most monumental research projects in modern history. Mountains and Plains bestseller list Denver Post bestseller list Mid-Atlantic bestseller list Review: Interesting and informative - The author made use of a unique literary device (in my experience) by narrating the entire book in the voice of first person plural. This book imparted a sense of immediacy to the experiences of the women who followed their scientist husbands to the lonely New Mexico spot where the atomic bomb was being developed in a frantic race to beat the Germans. It depicts their daily struggles against boredom, isolation, lack of cultural opportunities, etc. to carve out a meaningful existence. Many of the women were highly educated and managed to occupy themselves, but some turned to the daily cocktail hour for stimulation. Babies were born, marriages were strengthened or weakened, all in their circumscribed and secret world. Letters home were routinely censored, and even the wives didn't know what what really going on in the labs where their husbands worked. Then all was revealed in July of 1945 when the first bomb was detonated as the trial before Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world was stunned by the death and devastation of those bombs dropped on those two Japanese cities and the war was ended. I read somewhere that WWII was ended and WWIII was begun on those days in August of 1945. Reading this book led to my reading of a biography of Robert Oppenheimer who ran the Los Alamos project. I learned a lot. Review: More fact than fiction - As the title says, this is a book of the wives (plural) of Los Alamos; therefore, it is written about the wives, collectively. It is not about individuals, but the group. It is about what they did, how they thought as they lived secreted away from family and the rest of the world. Collectively, they speculated what work was being conducted by their scientist husbands who were forbidden from discussing the project. Individualism is reflected to in (paraphrased) lines as “we laughed or we didn’t or some of us cried” … “we attended or we stayed home or we were in the hospital having babies”. I must admit that the writing style confused me for the first few pages, but then I concluded that the only way to write a collective story was in first person plural. Later in the book, the author states that alone they could not have done much – but together ”WE” could. The book says it is a novel, but I think there is probably more fact than fiction. My first trip to Los Alamos was just after I graduated from high school. Although Los Alamos was no longer a closed city, we did have to stop at the guard’s gate, tell who we were visiting, and wait for permission to continue into the town. Later, I lived in the city from 1967 – 1978, I know that much of this book is true. She talks about the strange “booms” occurring in the city. During the eleven years I lived there, we would hear those “booms” about once a month. No one would ever explain what they were, but they did cause windows to rattle. I know people whose birth certificate lists place of birth as P.O. Box 1663 – Santa Fe, NM. Fuller Lodge was still a hub of activity and until residential buildings began on Barranca Mesa, “bath tub row” was still fairly prime real estate. The author alludes to the possibility of “wife swapping” and talks about the use of alcohol among the wives. During my time on The Hill, Los Alamos had one of the highest rates of alcoholism among wives, per capita than any place else in the U.S. The rumor has always been that there was a “key club” in the city, but I don’t know if that was true. I had never heard that the explosion from the first testing in White Sands was seen 360 miles away in Los Alamos, but perhaps it was. I didn’t know the wives were responsible for the golf course or other of their accomplishments, but because so much of the book is true, I really don’t doubt what all they did. I have been to the scientific museum several times and have seen the front page of the Santa Fe New Mexican – bronzed for generations – saying, “Now the Stoories from the Hill Can Be Told”. I’ve been to the Historical Museum and have read some personal letters from that time period. I found it to be an excellent book that history buffs of that period would enjoy. My only disagreement with Nesbit is that throughout the book, she refers to Los Alamos as “the desert”. A Native New Mexican, such as I, does not refer to any place with so many trees as "desert". (There were 7 Ponderosa Pines in my Los Alamos yard). But then, the author was born in Ohio – perhaps that is the difference? Even with that flaw, it is a great book. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #2,650,327 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #13,009 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 3.6 out of 5 stars 1,926 Reviews | ## Images ![The Wives of Los Alamos: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Lyj-GVYdL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Interesting and informative *by V***Y on September 14, 2019* The author made use of a unique literary device (in my experience) by narrating the entire book in the voice of first person plural. This book imparted a sense of immediacy to the experiences of the women who followed their scientist husbands to the lonely New Mexico spot where the atomic bomb was being developed in a frantic race to beat the Germans. It depicts their daily struggles against boredom, isolation, lack of cultural opportunities, etc. to carve out a meaningful existence. Many of the women were highly educated and managed to occupy themselves, but some turned to the daily cocktail hour for stimulation. Babies were born, marriages were strengthened or weakened, all in their circumscribed and secret world. Letters home were routinely censored, and even the wives didn't know what what really going on in the labs where their husbands worked. Then all was revealed in July of 1945 when the first bomb was detonated as the trial before Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world was stunned by the death and devastation of those bombs dropped on those two Japanese cities and the war was ended. I read somewhere that WWII was ended and WWIII was begun on those days in August of 1945. Reading this book led to my reading of a biography of Robert Oppenheimer who ran the Los Alamos project. I learned a lot. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ More fact than fiction *by K***N on April 8, 2014* As the title says, this is a book of the wives (plural) of Los Alamos; therefore, it is written about the wives, collectively. It is not about individuals, but the group. It is about what they did, how they thought as they lived secreted away from family and the rest of the world. Collectively, they speculated what work was being conducted by their scientist husbands who were forbidden from discussing the project. Individualism is reflected to in (paraphrased) lines as “we laughed or we didn’t or some of us cried” … “we attended or we stayed home or we were in the hospital having babies”. I must admit that the writing style confused me for the first few pages, but then I concluded that the only way to write a collective story was in first person plural. Later in the book, the author states that alone they could not have done much – but together ”WE” could. The book says it is a novel, but I think there is probably more fact than fiction. My first trip to Los Alamos was just after I graduated from high school. Although Los Alamos was no longer a closed city, we did have to stop at the guard’s gate, tell who we were visiting, and wait for permission to continue into the town. Later, I lived in the city from 1967 – 1978, I know that much of this book is true. She talks about the strange “booms” occurring in the city. During the eleven years I lived there, we would hear those “booms” about once a month. No one would ever explain what they were, but they did cause windows to rattle. I know people whose birth certificate lists place of birth as P.O. Box 1663 – Santa Fe, NM. Fuller Lodge was still a hub of activity and until residential buildings began on Barranca Mesa, “bath tub row” was still fairly prime real estate. The author alludes to the possibility of “wife swapping” and talks about the use of alcohol among the wives. During my time on The Hill, Los Alamos had one of the highest rates of alcoholism among wives, per capita than any place else in the U.S. The rumor has always been that there was a “key club” in the city, but I don’t know if that was true. I had never heard that the explosion from the first testing in White Sands was seen 360 miles away in Los Alamos, but perhaps it was. I didn’t know the wives were responsible for the golf course or other of their accomplishments, but because so much of the book is true, I really don’t doubt what all they did. I have been to the scientific museum several times and have seen the front page of the Santa Fe New Mexican – bronzed for generations – saying, “Now the Stoories from the Hill Can Be Told”. I’ve been to the Historical Museum and have read some personal letters from that time period. I found it to be an excellent book that history buffs of that period would enjoy. My only disagreement with Nesbit is that throughout the book, she refers to Los Alamos as “the desert”. A Native New Mexican, such as I, does not refer to any place with so many trees as "desert". (There were 7 Ponderosa Pines in my Los Alamos yard). But then, the author was born in Ohio – perhaps that is the difference? Even with that flaw, it is a great book. ### ⭐⭐⭐ Quite a Unique TIme in American History *by B***T on April 13, 2014* I have always felt if a book inspires you to think and talk about it and the subject matter it includes after you have closed the last page that it is a success. With that definition, I will say this book was a success. It told the story -- or stories -- of the thoughts and feelings of the experiences of the wives of those scientists and physicists who developed the atom bomb that was dropped on Japan to end World War II. What an experience to live through. Imagine being whisked off with your family to live in some secret place "somewhere out west" under mysterious conditions that you couldn't even tell your parents about, knowing at the core that your husband was involved in something secret having to do with the war. The writing style of the author was such that it conveyed the ambiguity of the wives by talking in generalities. When I say this made me think and discuss the subject, I wanted to discuss it more, but frankly I find it difficult to find people/friends who want to get involved in conversations that go to the core of war itself and/or eithical/moral issues related to developing weapons that can literally wipe out civilizations, etc. Considering the state of affairs today -- with Iran and other rogue nations developing nuclear weapons -- deterrence really is the name of the game for the continuance of mankind. In the near future, many more so-called rogue nations will have the capability of wiping out millions with one armed missle. Though we may "trust" such a weapon in the hands of the United States, who would believe the U.S. would actually release the weapon it did in WWII? In the hands of rogue nations, there is a real and dangerous threat to all of mankind. Thus, disarmnament by the so-called trusted nations alone is meaningless and leaves them at risk by those who would abuse the power. This is a subject that demands more open and serious discussion among so-called "friendly" governments in order to deter those who would (when they could) unleash such power. I am inspired to read more on this subject, so for that alone I believe this author did her job. 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