Polygamy - Polygamy in Fiction and Popular Culture - Contemporary Setting

Contemporary Setting

Random House published David Ebershoff's novel The 19th Wife in 2008. It is about Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young's wives, and the legacy of Mormon polygamy in the United States today. "The Chosen One" was written by Carol Lynch Williams. It was published in 2009, and is the story of a young girl named Kyra who runs away from her Christian polygamist Compound. A Home at the End of the World is a novel by Michael Cunningham about a polygamous family. It was later adapted into a film. Both explore issues of homosexuality and families. Big Love is an HBO series about a polygamous family in Utah in the first decade of the 21st century. In the series, Bill Henrickson has eight children (and one step-daughter) with his wives Barb, Nikki, Margene (and another child with Ana), who belong to a fundamentalist Mormon splinter group. Big Love explores the complex legal, moral, and religious issues associated with polygamy in Utah. Henrickson's three wives each have separate houses beside one another, with a shared backyard. By outward appearances, he lives with his primary wife, and has two "friends" living close by, while in reality taking turns sleeping at a different house each night. Henrickson effectively balances his work, the continuing demands of his wives, and his wives' relatives.

In September 2010 TLC premiered a reality television series entitled Sister Wives, which deals with polygamy by a self-described fundamentalist Mormon family in modern day Utah. On July 13, 2011, the show's husband and his wives filed a complaint in United States District Court to challenge Utah's law against polygamy.