Photographer's Wife, The

Suzanne Joinson

ISBN 10: 1543625312 ISBN 13: 9781543625318

Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio, 2017

Synopsis

Jerusalem, 1920: in an already fractured city, 11-year-old Prudence feels the tension rising as her architect father launches an ambitious and wildly eccentric plan to redesign the Holy City by importing English parks to the desert.

Prue, known as the 'little witness', eavesdrops underneath the tables of tearooms and behind the curtains of the dance halls of the city's elite, watching everything but rarely being watched herself. Around her, British colonials, exiled Armenians and German officials rub shoulders as they line up the pieces in a political game: a game destined to lead to disaster.

When Prue's father employs a British pilot, William Harrington, to take aerial photographs of the city, Prue is uncomfortably aware of the attraction that sparks between him and Eleanora, the English wife of a famous Jerusalem photographer. And after Harrington learns that Eleanora's husband is a nationalist intent on removing the British, those sparks are fanned dangerously into a flame.

Years later, in 1937, Prue is an artist living a reclusive life by the sea with her young son when Harrington pays her a surprise visit. What he reveals unravels her world, and she must follow the threads that lead her back to secrets long ago buried in Jerusalem.

The Photographer's Wife is a powerful story of betrayal: between father and daughter, between husband and wife, and between nations and people, set in the complex period between the two world wars.

About this title

About the Author

Suzanne Joinson is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction whose work has appeared in, among other places, the New York Times, Vogue UK, Aeon, Lonely Planet, and the Independent on Sunday. Her first novel, A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar, was translated into sixteen languages and was a national bestseller. She lives in Sussex, England.
suzannejoinson.com / @suzyjoinson

Review

"Sheer beauty stalks the empty spaces of this stubborn, lyrical novel." - Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review

"Atmospheric, romantic, yet refreshingly acerbic--Joinson's timely portrayal of the difficult relationships between different cultures is rivaled by her heartbreaking delineation of the fragile relationships between individuals." - starred review, Kirkus Reviews

"This is historical fiction at its most pleasurable." - Library Journal

"An intriguing father-daughter story, with an Atonement-esque exploration of the differences between child and adult understanding." - BookPage

"A riveting story about betrayal and love, and all that lies between when the world was at a resting place and there did not seem to be any end to the wonders of it all. As Prue discovers, the underbelly of all that beauty had something rotten to bear. And, like all good secrets, they completely transform the perspectives of both the characters and readers as the story drives towards its impactful conclusion." - BookReporter

"Suzanne Joinson has skillfully written another terrifically entertaining novel with The Photographer's Wife. A deftly crafted and engaging read from beginning to end." - Midwest Book Review

"Joinson masterfully employs sub-plot and subtle detail to take the reader smoothly from character to character, decade to decade, and place to place. The reader, confident in the hands of a true storyteller, is free to settle in and be swept away." - Historical Novel Society

"A sizzling 1920s-set tale of love and betrayal." - Heat (Our Top 5 Section)

"Joinson’s Atonement-esque second novel . . . creates a lingering sense of horror and trauma." - Sunday Telegraph

About this edition

• Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1543625312
• ISBN 13: 9781543625318
• Binding: MP3 CD