The 19th Wife

The 19th Wife (2008), a work of historical fiction by David Ebershoff, centers on one historical family’s polygamous history, which links to a modern-day murder in another polygamous relationship. Receiving widespread critical praise upon publication, critics lauded its blend of the pace of modern murder mysteries and the depth of historical fiction. Ebershoff is a popular novelist best known for his book, The Danish Girl, which was adapted into a major motion picture. The 19th Wife was adapted into a television movie. Ebershoff’s books are available in more than twenty languages.

Two interlinked stories are at play in The 19th Wife. The first, set in 1875, concerns a young woman who finally breaks free from her tyrannical, polygamous husband. She sets out to expose polygamy and all its problems. The second story, set in modern-day Utah, involves a young man who must re-enter the fundamentalist religious sect he escaped years ago to expose the truth behind his polygamous father’s death.

Ann Eliza Young is a real-life historical figure although the events in the novel are fiction. Married to Brigham Young, a Mormon patriarch, Ann’s relationship with Young is unusual in that she is his nineteenth wife. Knowing that few people understand how prevalent polygamous marriage is within the Mormon community, Ann wants to expose it for the scandal that it is.



When Ann leaves the Mormon sect she grew up in, she thinks back on her past and how unhappy she was in the community. The daughter of the earliest Mormon converts, she remembers the insidious upturn in polygamy throughout her own family; her father, who had always doted on her mother, changed, suddenly believing in so-called “celestial” marriages and the doctrine of polygamy.

Ann’s father abandoned her mother, taking numerous wives. At one point, he married three women within three weeks. Ann didn’t know how to escape the community, and so she ended up married to a man who believed in similar ideologies. She detested being the nineteenth wife because, deep down, she knew this wasn’t love. The last thing she wanted was to raise children in this world, which is what prompted her to leave.

Meanwhile, there is another story playing out in the present. Jordan Scott did not grow up in the same community as Ann, but in a breakaway sect that also believes in polygamous marriages. One day, people see him holding his stepbrother’s hand and assume they’re having an inappropriate relationship. They cast Jordan out of the community for allegedly falling into sin.



As the years go by, Jordan forgets the community and his unhappiness. However, he never forgets his mother, Becky Lyn. Like Ann, she was the nineteenth wife, and it broke her heart to know her husband loved so many other women. When his father dies and the sect accuses Becky Lyn of murder, Jordan quits his construction job and heads back home to clear her name. Jordan knows there is no way she is capable of killing anyone.

In both stories, the husbands are the prophets within their respective communities. Both stories expose how powerful the prophet is and how seriously crimes against them are punished. Everyone fears the prophet and, even if they want to escape, they don’t know how. Women are powerless to refuse their sexual advances; if the prophet chooses them for a wife, they can’t say no. Ebershoff uses these dual narratives, set in very different times, to show how fundamental principles within radical Mormon communities haven’t changed.

Ann writes a book depicting how terrible life is in a Mormon community. She describes how her mother worried so much about Ann’s father’s soul that she convinced him to take a second wife. She believed this was the only way to ensure the family stayed together in Heaven. Although the methods of recruiting new wives have changed between the nineteenth century and today, the ideology behind it remains the same.



Jordan must confront the demons of his childhood when he returns to the sect. He remembers what it was like growing up as a child in such a large family. The children are forgotten about and it is impossible to thrive. All that matters is that the children obey the prophet, fulfilling whatever roles he assigns to them.

Finally, Jordan clears Becky Lyn’s name. The killer steps forward to face punishment. Jordan begs Becky Lyn to leave with him to build a new life in Utah, but she can’t leave the community. She knows nothing other than community life, and she is afraid of the outside world. Jordan leaves knowing he will never see Becky Lyn again. As for Ann, she helps pass an act making it easier for the government to persecute polygamists, and she publishes her highly popular memoirs.