The Mere Wife — Maria Dahvana Headley

The New York Timesâ€"bestselling author presents a modern retelling of Beowulf as two suburban moms fight to protect those they love.

To its distinguished residents, the suburban enclave of Herot Hall is a paradise. Picket fences and meticulous homes line the streets, and the community is entirely self-sustaining. But for those who live along Herot Hall's periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights.

As wife of the heir to Herot Hall, Willa Herot enjoys a languid life of mommy groups, cocktail hours, and dinner parties -- always with her son Dylan in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave outside town lives Gren, short for Grendel, and his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. 

Dana didn't want Gren, didn't plan Gren, and doesn't know how she got Gren. But when she returned from war, there he was. Then Gren unwittingly ventures into Herot Hall. And when runs off with Dylan, Dana's and Willa's worlds collide.