Columbia has acquired rights to Robert Goolrick's novel "
The Reliable Wife," which hits shelves March 31. The Gotham Group repped the sale for the author.
Set in rural Wisconsin in 1908, the book centers on a middle-aged widower who places a newspaper ad seeking "a reliable wife." Instead of fielding a homely applicant, the man finds himself welcoming a gorgeous former courtesan with an agenda of her own.