Conjure Wife

Every woman does it. That's what makes Norman Saylor's discovery so devastating. His wife Tansy has been practicing witchcraft to protect his academic career, and the other wives in their circle have been doing the same, subtle magics woven into the fabric of faculty life. When Norman, a fiercely rational man, forces Tansy to abandon her charms, he assumes he's finally pulled his household into the light of reason. Instead, he's severed the only thing standing between him and the vengeful women he's now made enemies of. As the magic recedes, Norman finds himself besieged by professional ruin, social destruction, and a creeping dread that the world was never as rational as he believed. Leiber's 1943 novel is a masterpiece of quiet horror, a razor-sharp examination of how men dismiss the invisible labor of women until they desperately need it, and a darkly prescient portrait of power, jealousy, and the terrible cost of condescension.