The Prisoner's Wife

Product Description

In the dead of night a farm girl and a British soldier creep through abandoned villages. Izabela and prisoner-of-war Bill have secretly married and are on the run, searching for Izabela's brother and father, who are fighting the Nazis as partisans. They've evaded capture in the countryside for a week, but when their luck runs out, they are delivered into the hands of the occupying enemy, the German army.

But they have prepared for this moment. Izabela's hair has been shorn and, pretending to be unable to speak, she is assumed to be a mute young British soldier. The pair are transported to a POW camp and faced with living conditions far worse than those experienced by any animal on Izabela's farm. They will need the help of their fellow POWs to maintain their deception, and the gravity of the situation becomes chillingly apparent; if they are discovered, Izabela will have put not just herself and Bill in great danger, but also all the men around them.

The Prisoner's Wife tells of an incredible risk, and how our deepest bonds are tested in desperate times. Bill and Izabela's is a story of love, and survival, against the darkest odds.

Based on a true story, and researched extensively by the author on location in Eastern Europe, this is a story that takes the reader deep into a rarely-seen side of the Second World War.

In the dead of night a farm girl and a British soldier creep through abandoned villages. Izabela and prisoner-of-war Bill have secretly married and are on the run, searching for Izabela's brother and father, who are fighting the Nazis as partisans. They've evaded capture in the countryside for a week, but when their luck runs out, they are delivered into the hands of the occupying enemy, the German army.

But they have prepared for this moment. Izabela's hair has been shorn and, pretending to be unable to speak, she is assumed to be a mute young British soldier. The pair are transported to a POW camp and faced with living conditions far worse than those experienced by any animal on Izabela's farm. They will need the help of their fellow POWs to maintain their deception, and the gravity of the situation becomes chillingly apparent; if they are discovered, Izabela will have put not just herself and Bill in great danger, but also all the men around them.

The Prisoner's Wife tells of an incredible risk, and how our deepest bonds are tested in desperate times. Bill and Izabela's is a story of love, and survival, against the darkest odds.

Based on a true story, and researched extensively by the author on location in Eastern Europe, this is a story that takes the reader deep into a rarely-seen side of the Second World War.


Maggie Brookes is an ex-journalist and BBC TV documentary producer, turned poet and novelist. She's also an associate professor at Middlesex University, and an advisory fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.

The Prisoner's Wife is based on a true story told to her in a lift, by a World War II prisoner of war. Maggie visited Czechoslovakia, Poland and Germany as part of her research for the book, uncovering largely forgotten aspects of the war. Although the story can be harrowing at times, it's also about the power of friendship and of love.