The Prisoner’s Wife: Innocence Destroyed by World War II, Hope Restored by Resilience

Apr 23, 2020 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By Sue Weston and David Dobkin

The Prisoner’s Wife, a novel by Maggie Brookes (Penguin Group, available on Amazon), is a work of historical fiction inspired by an extraordinary true story from World War II. Avid readers of stories about the Holocaust should be prepared to be awestruck by this portrayal of a seldom-shared aspect of the war.

Even those familiar with the plight of Jews during the war and the descriptions of atrocities committed by the Nazis as they destroyed Europe will find Ms. Brookes’ depiction of two innocents who met despite their differences riveting.

The story concerns Bill, a British fighter captured by the Nazis, who is on work detail on a Czech farm, when he meets Izabela (Izzy), a young girl left behind to tend the farm with her mother and younger brother after her father and older brother go off to join the resistance.

There is a sense of naïve charm to Ms. Brookes characters who, even under these dire circumstances, are able to find romance. Izzy, who yearns for the adventures because she was denied because of her gender, works on the farm alongside the POWs. She finds herself increasingly attracted to Bill’s whistle which breaks from his wide, joyful smile.

“I had a sudden overwhelming sense that in all this hardship and mess, it might be possible to feel joy. The same feeling was written all over Bill’s face,” she gushes.

As their relationship deepens, the two create opportunities to be together. Bill teaches Izzy English, and she plots to find a way for them to escape the farm so they can be married. They approach the day as an exciting adventure. For protection, she cuts her curls and dresses as a boy. They run, hoping to find Izzy’s father and join him in the resistance.

Slowly, as they run out of food and realize how unlikely they are to find partisans, the reality of their situation becomes all too clear. Alone in the center of a huge continent teeming with Nazi soldiers, they are in constant danger. If caught, Bill would face thirty days’ solitary confinement in the notorious German Army prisoner of war camp, Lamsdorf. Izzy would be shot for helping a prisoner escape.

Once more, they create a story. Izzy becomes Cousins, a British soldier unable to speak, and this ruse not only saves their lives, it ignites in their fellow British POWs the spark of hope for survival.

Izzy stoically maintains her silence, beside Bill, witnessing the cruelty faced by POWs at the hands of the Nazis. There is a pecking order in the POW camp, with the British on top, followed by the Russians. Jews, are seen as less than human, all of which paled in comparison to the treatment meted out to Jews.

Ms. Brookes’ background as a former journalist and BBC television producer lends the sense of a documentary to her work as she leads the reader through this perilous and inspiring journey, told in alternating sequences from Izzy’s and Bill’s perspectives. While this offers balance to the story, it does make for some choppy transitions, compounded by the jumps back and forth in time. This can become dramatic, such as the detailed description of the grueling, forced 500-mile march imposed on the POWs by their Nazi jailers. Only their determination to survive keeps Izzy and Bill alive.

Unfortunately, this fascinating story becomes, at times, little more than a Harlequin Romance. The love scenes are graphic and unnecessary, which makes them tedious.

Nevertheless, almost in spite of itself, The Prisoner’s Wife is tale of epic proportions. It does not shrink from the cruelty of war which, in this telling, is offset only by the strength of love.

***

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