The Prisoner’s Wife: The BRAND NEW page-turning psychological thriller that will keep you captive for 2023

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Tommy has left Emma a set of rules she needs to live by and follow while he’s inside. He makes it clear that his mother and brother will be the ones keeping an eye on her. If Emma doesn’t follow the rules, her family will get hurt. The Prisoner’s Wife is due to be published by imprints of Penguin Random House in the UK and in the US in May 2020. Publication in other countries, including Holland, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic will follow. A gripping novel that explores the question of how much the human body, and the human spirit, can endure for the sake of love. The wealth of authentic detail makes it feel like a memoir ... I feel enriched to have read it.' GILL PAUL, author of The Lost Daughter and The Secret Wife

Tremendous ... this is much more than a love story' GEORGINA CLARKE, author of Death and the Harlot When we began, I was twenty-five, a student and organizer, a wife on the verge of divorce from my first husband, a poet full of secrets and sadness, an emerging woman hampered by insecurities and anger, a human being fighting off loneliness while craving solitude, needing an open love, long honest discussions, a quiet touching at my core. Izzy works on the family farm with her mother during World War 2. Their life in Czechoslovakia has been tough since her father and older brother joined the resistance leaving them unable to tend their crops. Izzy yearns to be with people her own age and dreams of a romance that she is unlikely to experience. She meets Bill, a British prisoner of war when he is assigned to work on her farm. Bill teaches her English and eventually they fall in love. This unlikely couple secretly marries and they both worry that he will be reassigned. I never used to able to imagine that, I said to her. To be engaged in a debate, and I didn’t mean the way men usually argue with women in that, Okay, dear, whatever you say kind of way. No! I meant the way men argue with men, as though the other person was a worthy opponent. Rashid listened to me and he challenged me. That’s who I fell in love with, I said over and over. A man who believed I was a woman who was worth it.In the dead of night a young Czech woman and a British soldier creep through the war-torn countryside

An outstanding read. This is a book you can easily read in one sitting. Well-written and fast-paced, you’ll be desperate to know how Emma can escape such a terrifying situation. Author Ali Blood is definitely one to watch and I’ll be excited to read their next book’ NetGalley Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tremendous … this is much more than a love story; it’s about the instinct for survival, the value of friends, and the power of hope even in the midst of terror.”– Georgina Clarke, author of Death and the Harlot After we were in love, Rashid would tell me that it was me, my fault, that I was hard to approach. He told me that while I was an animated and exciting performer, offstage I was quiet, withdrawn, cool and distant.

Success!

Izabela immediately fell in love with Bill when she saw him in a group of British prisoners who came to help on the farm during WWII. They were sent to Lamsdorf Prison where Izzy had to hide that she was a woman. Surprisingly the men in their hut actually helped to hide her. Inspired by the true story of a daring deception, a young Czech woman is plunged into the horrors of a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp to be with the English soldier she loves. You will be spellbound by this stellar novel. So richly imbued with sensory details you’ll be feeling every anguished moment and every golden ray of hope. What a beautifully wrought tribute to the real prisoner’s wife, wherever she may be.”— Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Last Year of the War

Sometimes when I’ve told people these things, they say they just can’t see it. Where’s the ugly stuff? I’ve been asked over and over. And I’ve told them yes, it was true, that there were some women for whom ugliness and hurt was the texture of their story, but it simply was not the picture that I had to draw.A tremendous story of love and courage in the face of stark adversity. This is much more than a love story; it’s about the instinct for survival, the value of friends, and the power of hope even in the midst of terror.’ Georgina Clarke, author of Death and the Harlot You will be spellbound by this stellar novel. So richly imbued with sensory details you'll be feeling every anguished moment and every golden ray of hope.' SUSAN MEISSNER, bestselling author of The Last Year of the War This book is RIVETING... so spell binding. We all know there are eight billion WWII era books out there and this once excels not only at shining a spotlight on a staggeringly unique (and true story), but being wielded by an author-poet who doesn't just type sentences but casts them out so they spiral and deftly fall. The setting, the imagery, the often uncomfortable visceral images and brutality that shroud the lives of Izzy and Bill at a quarry labour mine and then on the Long March that found thousands and thousands of POWs straggling to find their way aimlessly, terrorized by Nazi guards moving on a heightening fear, the allies close at heels of holey boots and makeshift footwear, gangrene and starvation, a death sentence, the war having long taken a turn, a last act of wavering defense. So Izzy is a Czech farm girl whose father and brother joined the resistance against Hitler. Bill is a British POW who has seen more than his fair share and is sent as a labourer to work on Izzy's farm where she lives alone with her mother. Bill and Izzy fall in love --it's instalove, sure--but it works because they do have time together as Bill teaches her English, as the cherry trees blossom, as they steal touches, as they recognize that love is accelerated in the midst of an urgent war when time and convention cease to exist. They marry and run away in hopes of Izzy catching up with the resistance, Izzy wearing her brother's clothes, head shorn, both aware that the encroaching Red Army is known of its disastrous treatment of women. Instead, they are captured and both send to Lamsdorf where Izzy's identity is so close to the front of a firing squad you can smell the prospective smoke.

This is a beautiful book that will give any reader in dark times a reason to believe in the continuing goodness of people' NICOLA GRIFFITH, author of Hild

Featured Reviews

I'm not doing it justice, but what a stunning book. Seriously, I'm almost speechless with its beauty. Of course, I would recommend it to just about anyone. With one slight caveat, and it's not a fault with the book in my opinion, but it's something I'd add to the recommendation. That is that several people have mentioned when they started this book that they didn't think they'd finish it because her writing is just too . . . much. Too poetic or too flowery or something. I noticed that as well. And I can't say that it lost that as the book went on, but after a while you see that it really works. She talks about some really intense things in the book, and her style of writing really helps carry it without getting too mired down. So I guess I'd just say this: If all that's bothering you is her writing style, keep reading. I think you'll find that you're enjoying the book by the time you're halfway through at least. Read more All I knew going in was the basic blurb: asha bandele met, fell in love with, and eventually married a man who is doing 20 to life for murder. This is the story of that relationship. It sounded interesting, though honestly I wasn't sure I'd even bother finishing the book. I had high hopes, but they weren't based on much and I knew I could easily be disappointed. But the writing is so powerful and direct, you cannot help but sink into bandele's story. It's so much more than the story of a woman who fell in love against all odds. bandele writes with such insight and honesty, and you find yourself moving through love, power, struggle, heartbreak, joy, hope, misery, sex, birth, death, discovery, and hundreds of other states. The story is relentless, and yet flows with absolute grace. Can you imagine such a man? He wants to consult with me about everything. Everything! He takes my advice, I have said to whoever would listen. This book has everything I’d hoped it would have. I have been left completely speechless by this one and wish I could experience reading this for the first time all over again.