“The 19th Wife” book connects a modern-day murder mystery in a polygamous community with authentic work written by Ann Eliza Young over a century ago. Ann Eliza was formerly a plural wife, married to the leader of the Mormon Church in 1875. She rejected polygamy and became an outspoken critic, aiming to expose her views about the evils of plural-marriage arrangements. In the present-day story, Jordan Scott is a young man who was expelled from his polygamous community in his early teen years. After struggling to adjust to an unknown world, he creates a new life and moves on from his traumatizing upbringing. When he discovers that his mother is being charged in the murder of his father, Jordan reluctantly returns to face his past, and ultimately risk his safety to uncover the truth. The true tale of Ann Eliza Young and the fictional drama of Jordan Scott make for a page-turning story. The excerpt below from David Ebershoff’s best-selling novel will leave you wanting more.

Chapter One: TWO WIVES

Preface to the First Edition

In the one year since I renounced my Mormon faith, and set out to tell the nation the truth about American polygamy, many people have wondered why I ever agreed to become a plural wife. Everyone I meet, whether farmer, miner, railman, professor, cleric, or the long-faced Senator, and most especially the wives of these-everyone wants to know why I would submit to a marital practice so filled with subjugation and sorrow. When I tell them my father has five wives, and I was raised to believe plural marriage is the will of God, these sincere people often ask, But Mrs. Young-how could you believe such a claim?

Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.

Now, with the publication of this autobiography, my enemies will no doubt suspect my motives. Having survived attempts on both my life and character, however, I stand unconcerned by their assaults. I have chosen to commit my memories to the page neither for fame, the trough from which I have drunk and would be happy never to return to, nor fortune, although it is true I am without home and have two small boys to care for. Simply, I wish to expose the tragic state of polygamy's women, who must live in a bondage not seen in this country since the abolishment of slavery a decade ago; and to reveal the lamentable situation of its children, lonely as they are.

I promise my Dear Reader I shall recount my story truthfully, even when it distresses me to do so. In these pages you will come to know my mother, who by religious duty welcomed four wives into her husband's bed. You will encounter the old woman forced to share her husband with a girl one-fifth her age. And you shall meet the gentleman with so many wives that when one approaches him on the street, he answers, "Madame, do I know you?"