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Our client was a hypnotic blend of Joan of Arc and Imelda Marcos; both goddess and she-devil, princess and tyrant, martyr and uber-b*tch."
An unconventional legal thriller and absorbing debut that is as satisfyingly complex in both its plotting and moral conclusions’ EXPRESS The name conjured a glimmering swarm of contradictions. A sumptuous banquet crawling with maggots.’ I found myself reading faster and faster to get to the end, to find out Laura and Marija’s fates, what happens? You will have to see, innocent or not, you won’t be able to look away! You will be held spellbound by The Dictators Wife.Most of the novel is set in 1993 when Laura Lazarescu, a young London lawyer of Yanussian descent, travels to Yanussia as part of the legal team called in to defend Marija Popa, wife of the former dictator, Constantin Popa. Marija is charged with money laundering, bribery, fraud and corruption. The story is book-ended by events in 2018, when Marija dies and Laura reflects on earlier events. The story is told in the first person by Laura. First ladies’ fashion choices are scrutinised in ways that would be unthinkable for their besuited husbands beyond their choice of tie colour. Conversely, not much ink has been spilled on the wardrobe choices of Doug Emhoff, second gentleman and spouse of Vice-President Kamala Harris.
A captivating story of women's power, love and secrets. As timely and profound as it is unforgettable. The ending left me breathless'-- LARA PRESCOTT, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept Mary Jordan, a biographer of Melania Trump, found her more ambitious and knowing – more like Donald Trump – than is often assumed. Berry comments: “She’s very good at disappearing, even when she’s right there, behind her sunglasses.”At times the book was claustrophobic and gave the reader a truly dark restricted atmosphere that really added an extra layer of slightly experiencing the opression and horror of a dictator regime. It was both completely terrifying and captivating in equal measure. I think because I knew that this has happened in some form in the real world made it all the more compelling. Laura is enticed into the spiders web of Marija; the little mother, groomed since childhood to believe in her power. I could feel the pressure that Laura felt, the risks she takes, giving me a dry mouth, my heart thumping as I read, it was so well done. Young lawyer Laura Lăzărescu has been assigned to a high-profile case that could make her career. Having grown up in England as the child of immigrants, she’s completely disconnected from her family’s heritage, but with the trial taking place in her parents’ homeland of Yanussia, Laura hopes she can finally find answers to the questions that have been plaguing her for years. Why did her parents flee Yanussia when she was a child? What was so terrible that it left both of them – particular Laura’s once-vibrant mother – traumatised and unable to show their only daughter love? And why did they erase every connection to their homeland, forcing Laura to feel unmoored in her own home?
For Laura, the case has a personal meaning. Her mother has never spoken of the horrors she witnessed under the old regime, and remains a shadow of the woman she used to be. As Laura prepares for the trial, she realises that to find the truth, she must enter the web of the dictator's wife. But what secrets lie within? My debut novel follows a captivating dictator's wife standing trial for her dead husband's crimes in post-communist eastern Europe, and the web of lies she weaves around the young female lawyer defending her. As the novel’s cover suggests, this is a boldly visual novel. I won’t be surprised to see it turned into a film or Netflix series. I, for one, can easily imagine Cate Blanchett as the Dictator’s Wife. In 1989 Popa, the Dictator of a (fictional) communist country Yanussia is executed when the country has a revolution.
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The petitions were turned down and Elena had to settle for an honorary degree from the Central London Polytechnic and an honorary fellowship from the Royal Institute of Chemistry. According to Behr, the chancellor of London University, Professor Sir Philip Norman, publicly praised Elena's work, despite the fact that she never wrote a single word of any of her publications. Laura's own family hides Yanussian secrets, her loyalties are tested, her own instincts alert to deception. Her findings will impact many, including her own kin. Marija presents as hot and cold, innocent and guilty, evil and good, all at different times, making it hard to work out whether she should be convicted or acquitted. Her failure to co-operate with the defence team doesn’t help her cause. With a title like that, with the blurb on the covers, the comments from the author herself, I was expecting a full on exposé of the lives of the wives of the appalling men who have caused so much damage and despair in our world over the past 100 years. Think Imelda Marcos, Elena Ceausescu, Eva Peron and others - how culpable are they in the crimes of their husbands, how much did they know, take part in, facilitate. But no, disappointingly it is not about that at all. The author has been a financial and political journalist for Reuters, and through her work has had the opportunities to observe the wives of the world's powerful leaders, and hence planting the seeds for this story. But this is not really about the wife. Will she ever find out the truth about her family secrets, and why her family never want her to return to Yanussia, and certainly don't want her to defend Marija Popa?
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