The paris wife creates the kind of out of body reading experience that dedicated book lovers yearn for nearly as good as reading hemingway for the first time and it doesnt get much better than that minneapolis star tribune exquisitely evocative . The paris wife is a mesmerizing novel about paris in the 1920s featuring the bohemian lost generation it is the touching and heartbreaking story of the love affair and marriage of literatures original bad boy ernest hemingway and his first wife hadley richardson hemingway. The paris wife by paula mclain is the story of hadley richardson and ernest hemingway during the years between 1920 and 1927 the story begins in chicago where hadley had come to visit her friends kate and kelsey smith sister and brother who had a large apartment and rented out rooms to friends. About paula paula mclain is the author of the new york times bestselling novels the paris wife and circling the sun she now introduces her latest title love and ruin . The paris wife is a 2011 novel by paula mclain which became a new york times bestseller the paris wife is a fictionalized account of ernest hemingways marriage to hadley richardson the first of his four wives