The Dictator's Wife: A mesmerising novel of deception and BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club pick

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Gender roles and stereotypes are a key theme throughout The Dictator's Wife, and the reader is challenged on their own views and beliefs about what limits exist around an individual's gender. To some degree, the reader has to decide what they believe to be true from the conflicting narratives that are presented to them. The mesmerised narrator wonders aloud about the impact of these women, raising issues not too detached from ones we might ask about our own, real-life dictators’ wives. Why does the media fawn over their closets and philanthropic habits? And does the fixation on the glamour help disguise the darkness of their husbands’ deeds? Everybody has a choice.' He laughed. 'Spoken like somebody who's never truly had to make one. Two options are not the same as a choice.'" Berry read about another striking example in the Middle East: Asma al-Assad, wife of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, now widely considered a war criminal. In 2011 she was featured on the cover of Vogue magazine with the headline “A Rose in the Desert”, and a fawning profile that began: “Asma al-Assad is glamorous, young and very chic – the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies.” It’s a man’s world but these women are married to the men who make this world. I wanted to explore that duality because they’re at the eye of power but it’s slightly off to the left. They’re not paid. Their role often isn’t clear,” Berry says.

The book follows Laura, a young lawyer, who is part of a team who go to the country of her exiled parents, to defend the wife of the dead former leader, accused of being complicit in his crimes. As her parents escaped the country, and do not want their daughter to go to defend Marija Popa, this leads to a fracture in their already fragile relationship, damaged by a lifetime of secrets. 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. Freya Berry always loved stories, but it took several years as a journalist to realise she loves the kind of truth that lies in fiction, not reality. (Or, to put it another way, making stuff up is more fun.)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. Now I was here, on behalf of the woman whose husband had controlled it all. How much had she known? How tainted was she, and therefore how tainted was I by association?”

The book's pace slows considerably through the middle section even though some new considerations and red herrings are thrown into the mix. However, there is a reasonably late revelation that does deliver some sense of closure. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors. These are private people in public roles, a personal relationship writ into statesmanship,” Berry clarifies. “I just felt like the last time I really read about a fictional dictator’s wife was probably Lady Macbeth and I thought maybe it could do with a second look.” A gripping, intelligent, utterly-of-the-moment thriller’EMMA STONEX, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamplighters The sense of place is fabulous, and the juxtaposition of the bleak streets of Yanussia where people are starving and freezing, with the opulence of the home of Marija Popa highlighted the stark difference between those in power and their people.

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Institute of Organic Chemistry (Romanian Academy) in Bucharest built in the 1970s. Source: socialistmodernism.com Authors, if you are a member of the Goodreads Author Program, you can edit information about your own books. Find out how in this guide.

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? The book combined real world law terminology (and British law firms) to deliver an accurate and thought-provoking look into who society deems monsters and who we give free passes to. How we define history and how we allow it to shape our present and our future. How money and status enables access to creating an illusion of innocence. Are any of us innocent? How do we truly define innocence? Hanson, Roger. “Elena Ceausescu - Romanian Dictator’s Wife and Fake Scientist.” Stuff.Co.Nz, 12 July 2017, https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/94679348/roger-hanson-elena-ceausescu--romanian-dictators-wife-and-fake-scientist.

My hands down favourite aspect of this book were the characters, they felt so three dimensional and were well done. The Dictator’s wife herself was such a compelling woman to read about, I felt as fascinated by her as the narrator. She had such an alluring energy to her, I was captivated by the way she held herself and the way she spoke. I think she was a great character to study. I’m a little bit obsessed with her, I’d literally love to read more about her in her own book to be honest. Imelda’s quite hard not to like, no matter what you think of her pretty dubious politics. So I did feel an unnerving amount of sympathy, which you have to as a novelist: you can’t just go in with that hardheaded, judgmental approach. I wanted my character, Marija, to be ambiguous, this enchanting spider at the novel’s heart. I wanted you to be a bit seduced by Marija at the same time as being probably a bit repelled or afraid of her.” A fascinating exploration of absolute power, female agency and the complexities of complicity. Atmospheric, claustrophobic and so elegantly written’ELLERY LLOYD, New York Times bestselling author of The Club She isn’t a person, she’s a puppeteer. She discovers what you are, what you can and cannot bear, and uses it.’

I have always had questions about the wives and children of world leaders and figures throughout history that have held distatorships but none more prominent in my mmind than how much did their wives really know and/or agree with their policies and reigns of terror and for that reason this book was so thought provoking and intrinsincly fascinating. There were moments that were truly heartwrenching and yet there were also moments of love. Wow! I know this is fiction but this felt really real! The scenes at the press conference with rabid crowds surging, the violence, you could feel the rage. We’ve seen scenes this on the TV but I felt like I was in these places whilst reading, a really believable world has been created and I found myself half holding my breath at times, on tenterhooks to see what would happen next! I know the phrase “will have you reading long into the night” gets thrown about an awful lot, but it is completely true for this book. Her second novel, The Birdcage Library, is out now: an adventuress discovers an old book containing clues about the disappearance of a woman who vanished 50 years before. Set between a Scottish castle in the 1930s and an exotic animal emporium in Gilded Age New York, it's a twisting Gothic tale of secrets, obsession and murder. Oh, and taxidermy. Through her work as a financial and political journalist, Freya Berry was inspired by watching the wives of dictators and strongmen – particularly Melania Trump during the US election in 2016. These women often carry with them an air of detachment, an aloofness that can come across as cold and indifferent, sometimes even calculating. Marija, the dictator’s wife of the title, certainly seems to be all of these things, though she’s so much more – as Laura soon discovers. Marija has a magnetic allure that Laura can’t resist, even though she knows she’s being lured into the spider’s trap. There’s a power play going on between these two women and whilst for much of the novel it feels as if Marija is the one in control, Laura has an innate tenacity that makes her willing to do whatever it takes to dig out the truth – even if it hurts her irrevocably in the process.The legal defence team for the former First Lady, who is on trial for a myriad of corruption charges and faces the death penalty if found guilty, includes two Yanussian expats, both of whom have been selected for the case based upon their nationality – by the former First Lady. This is a complex story of displacement, both at the national and the personal level. It’s fraught with fear, of the sort that is unknown to those of us who have not lived under a communist rule. The author has recreated this sense of dark urgency, it descends over you while reading like a suffocation as you feel the terror of living with the secrets of the past, secrets that are still too dangerous to reveal.