This Pygmalion tale of a struggling novelist turned bond trader brings to life the greed and riotous wealth of mid-2000s New York City.
India Palmer, living the cash-strapped existence of the writer, is visiting wealthy friends in Maine when a yellow biplane swoops down from the clear blue sky to bring a stranger into her life, one who will change everything.
The stranger is Win Johns, a swaggering and intellectually bored trader of mortgage-backed securities. Charmed by India's intelligence, humor, and inquisitive nature—and aware of her near-desperate financial situation—Win poses a proposition: "Give me eighteen months and I'll make you a world-class bond trader."
Shedding her artist's life with surprising ease, India embarks on a raucous ride to the top of the income chain, leveraging herself with crumbling real estate, never once looking back . . .Or does she? With a light-handed irony that is by turns as measured as Claire Messud's and as biting as Tom Wolfe's, Martha McPhee tells the classic American story of people reinventing themselves, unaware of the price they must pay for their transformation.

"A fun take on Edith Wharton's classic," this contemporary comedy of manners features Houston's oil-money elite navigating friendship and romance (Marie Claire).

Thirty-year-old Vivienne Cally is wealthy in name only. Orphaned as a child and raised by a cold but regal aunt, Vivienne was taught to rely on her beauty and Texas tradition, and is expected to marry a wealthy and respectable man who will honor the Cally name. Friends with Houston's richest and most prominent families, she's a beloved fixture at the social events big and small, and suffers no shortage of access to some of the city's most eligible bachelors.

Preston Duffin has known Vivienne and her set since childhood. He's never shared their social aspirations or their status but is liked and respected for his sharp wit and intelligence. About to graduate from a prestigious architecture program, he is both fascinated and repelled by this group of friends he sits on the cusp of. He's long admired Vivienne's beauty and grace, but isn't sure he holds any place in such a traditional life.

Intrigued by Preston's ambitions and the way he challenges the only way of life she's ever known, Vivienne both courts Preston's attention, and rebuffs his critiques of her antiquated priorities and values.

Inspired by Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, Yvonne Georgina Puig's A Wife of Noble Character shares the original novel's astute social commentary at the same time that it illuminates the trappings and rewards of coming of age that are wholly unique to the twenty-first century.

"A masterful, sharp-eyed and eloquent debut." ?Janet Fitch, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of White Oleander

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