Captured by the German army, it seems they must be separated - but they have prepared for this moment. By cutting her hair and pretending to be mute, Izabela successfully disguises herself as a British soldier. Together, they face the terrible conditions of a POW camp, reliant on the help of their fellow POWs to maintain their fragile deception. bandele, asha—Marriage. 2. Poets, American—20th century—Biography. 3. Prisoners’ spouses—United States—Biography. 4. Married People—United States—Biography. 5. Afro-American women poets—Biography.I. Title. An absorbing and engaging tale of wartime bravery and endurance. Bill and Izabela are such tenderly drawn characters… I loved it! Rachel Hore, author of Last Letter Home and The Memory Garden

Another problem, and probably my biggest, is that I didn't care at all for Izzy. For a 20 year old girl that grew up in that time period and on a farm where maturity and hard work are expected from a very young age, she had the maturity of a fifteen year old.A debut novel set in 1944 war-torn Czechoslovakia amid the extreme privations of a prisoner of war camp. Based on a true story, passion, heroism and a love that transcends overwhelming odds. Fortunately, for all of the moments of horror, we are held in the cradle of humanity exemplified at times by unlikely allies and small kindnesses, but also in the characters surrounding Izzy like a shield. I loved Ralph, for example, who steps into his role and guides, who is a natural leader, whose sisters at home paint a path of grace for every action he takes in protecting Izzy. I love Max, bookish, philosophical Max, whose heart has been broken and to whom Izzy's sacrifice for love is a balm. I love Scotty, conflicted and brawny, a Scotsman atoning for the past, and treating Izzy like something precious, sacrificing for love at the cost of his own path to redemption.

An absorbing and engaging tale of wartime bravery and endurance. I loved it!”– Rachel Hore, author of Last Letter Home and The Memory Garden Tremendous ... this is much more than a love story' GEORGINA CLARKE, author of Death and the Harlot This is a love story, awake and alive. It’s a breathing document, a living witness. It’s human possibility, hope, and connection. It’s a gathering of Spirit, the claiming of dreams. It’s an Alvin Ailey dance, a rainbow roun’ mah shoulder. It’s a freedom song, a 12-string guitar, a Delta blues song. This story is a reprieve. When a debut is praised by the likes of Jojo Moyes, you know it’s worth reading…You won’t be able to put down this tender and heartbreaking read.”– Judith Allnat, author of The Poet’s Wife and The Silk FactoryBut let's start with the voice because that is, of course, what lured me so deeply. It is told in third person for Bill and first for Izzy: Izzy's portions are more languorous and thoughtful: painting everything around her and, at least before her world is sliced with grey, doused in romance. She is physically attracted to Bill, yes, but to the world. It is also important to know that Izzy --for many chapters-- speaks little English at all. Brookes is a genius in that she somehow pulls off these conversations between two characters who do not understand each other, Izzy obviously recalling from memory, the attraction between the two filling in the lines between. Bill's voice is in urgent, immediate third: reflective of the frantic worry he has for Izzy for always being on guard and looking around trying to perceive the next hurdle or threat, aware that he might have to offer his life for her at the slight disruption to their fragile world. Emma is married to top dog, dodgy character Tommy. As this begins, Tommy is found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment. Only, this doesn’t mean freedom for wife Emma. The Prisoner's Wife seamlessly and skilfully breathes intense, fully realised life into the stark scenes it describes. I was by turns moved, outraged and humbled' DEBORAH KAY DAVIES, author of True Things About Me Based on the experiences of real people and real events, The Prisoner’s Wife seamlessly and skilfully breathes intense, fully realised life into the stark scenes it describes. The author shows us love's ability to inspire the deepest devotion as well as acts of unimaginable sacrifice and bravery. I was by turns moved, outraged and humbled. Deborah Kay Davies, author of True Things About Me Izabela and Bill were destined to meet, but did Izabela realize what she was getting herself and Bill into when she rushed the marriage and escaped the farm she had known for her entire life?

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. Inspired by the true story of a daring deception that plunges a courageous young woman deep into the horrors of a Nazi POW camp to be with the man she loves.

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There are so many complications for Emma in this one- a controlling husband, colourful and uncaring in laws, fear and urgency to protect her own family and she’s haunted by mistakes she has made while Tommy has been inside. 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. 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.

asha, some have argued, girl, you have blinders on. He might be great now, but who is he going to be when he comes home? As well as being a writer, Maggie is an advisory fellow for the Royal Literary Fund and also an Associate Professor at Middlesex University, London, England, where she has taught creative writing since 1990. She lives in London and Whitstable, Kent and is married, with two grown-up daughters. Heart wrenching and heart warming in equal measure, The Prisoner's Wife is an unputdownable read. Finely crafted, atmospheric, often nail-biting, this is an excellent addition to the WW2 canon. A (bloody) great read.’ Ben Kane, author of The Eagles of Rome series Izzy barely leaves their bunk. So rather than focusing on how hungry she is, how scared she is, what she would love to eat, or thinking about her mother and brother, or daydreaming about the future, or hell, even skipping the most of the camp altogether...we're treated to almost the entire middle of the book dedicated to politics. I finished this book at 3 am. I haven't done one of those late night book binges in an age. And then, of course, I couldn't sleep after. Too much was running through my head and processing and re-engaging like it sparked a wheel or two to spinning. The characters were still chattering to each other and the landscape was still that frost-cold of early spring with a tease now and then of sunlight. I literally could not stop devouring it.

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I just adored Izzy and Bill too. How can you not root for a young couple in love to outwit the Germans and survive? I was rooting that a happy ending for them from the moment they met. I especially loved Izzy, who not only wanted to get off that farm, but she specifically wanted to find and join up with her father and brother who were members of a resistance group. I loved her spark and her strength and was sure that if anyone could survive their impossible situation, it was Izzy. And I love Bill. How I love Bill. Bill who is wired to be optimistic. Bill who thinks on his feet. Bill who marries a girl because they fit each other but is smart enough to recognize how little they know of each other as she steps into the horror of their new world together. I love how conditioned he is to find music, that he knits. I love that he is good natured and a loyal friend. I love that he sees time and again --from an early morning hoisting cherries--through a death march how strong Izzy is... but also how he recognizes the utmost sacrifice she makes for him. That she has opportunities to leave but that she is with him in this as in all things. June 1944: Izzy (Izabela) is 20 year old woman living and working on the family farm in Czechoslovakia alongside her mother. Her father and older brother Jan left at the beginning of the war to join the Resistance, leaving the two women and 8 year old Marek unable to tend to their farm and crops on their own. When an SS captain approaches their farm one day, Izzy fears he has come to requisition it for the Reich. But Captain Meier comes to offer assistance in the form of a prisoner of war work camp, to which her mother heartily and thankfully agrees. Yes, I tell them. Of course that’s true. But Rashid could also come home and be wonderful to me. None of us know tomorrow, only this moment, now, this time, already recorded in history.