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  • The Dictator's Wife

  • Discover your new obsession: a spellbinding story of dark secrets
  • By: Freya Berry
  • Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
  • Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (63 ratings)

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The Dictator's Wife

By: Freya Berry
Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
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Summary

Behind her smile lies a secret....

The most gripping debut novel of the year.

'I know you would like to hate me. History is written by the victors, and these are always men....'

The wife of a toppled dictator stands trial for her husband's crimes.

The world will finally know the truth. But whose?

Visceral and thought-provoking, powerful and emotional, haunting and heart-breaking, The Dictator's Wife will hold you in its grip until its gut-wrenching conclusion.

Woman....

I learned early in life how to survive. A skill that became vital in my position.

Wife....

I was given no power, yet I was expected to hold my own with the most powerful man in the country.

Mother of the nation....

My people were my children. I stood between him and them.

I am not the person they say I am.

I am not my husband.

I am innocent.

Do you believe me?

A gripping and timely story, The Dictator's Wife will keep you listening long into the night....

©2022 Freya Berry (P)2022 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
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What listeners say about The Dictator's Wife

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Most full book for a while

Really dragged - especially the reader . Read the first hour several times over a long period as just couldn’t engage

The big reveal was a damp squib

The end was dull

Wasted hours

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful

utterly incredible. must must must listen to or read. cannot heap higher praise on to this

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Engaging if too long

Needed a better editor
Too many irrelevant characters and not enough compassion between the main players

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent debut

I thoroughly enjoyed this look at a fictional state’s reverence for, and rejection of, their Leader’s wife. Mother, Dupe, Widow or Gangster. It’s set in Eastern Europe after a revolution which could see her hanged but the issues and questions are relevant the world over.
The plot revolves around a team of lawyers preparing the former First Lady’s defence against charges of stealing from her nation. She’s a slippery character but I have to confess I failed to see the charm she’s supposed to have worked on others. There’s a decidedly flabby bit in the middle where the heroine has sex then just sort of decides not to bother any more and the heroine’s father’s explanation of her relationship with her mother is unconvincing at best but those things aside, I really enjoyed the evidence discovery and historical elements. Perhaps it might have worked better for me as a thriller but that’s really for the author to choose!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Impossible to stop listening to!!

Unbelievably well crafted story with fleshed out characters that takes you on a journey filled with detail and twists and turns that you never cannot ever see coming. A book everyone should read and frankly ought to be required reading in schools. Freya Berry’s new book The Birdcage is as different in subject as you can get, but still full of the same wonderful characters, stories and those twists and turns. I cannot recommend her books enough and I am eagerly waiting for her third book…

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Awful

So I've listened to it all as it sounded good off the sample. However, I have no clue whatsoever what this story was about.

Listen to something else and don't buy it.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A story suffocated by its own author

I once had a wonderful creative writing teacher called Mrs Westcott, though she was very strict and could be brutal with the red pen. Less is Best was her motto.
This author would have suffered badly if her book had passed under the gaze of Mrs W. The reader is dragged through one overly descriptive passage after another, the story becoming more and more fatigued by metaphors. A simile here, a simile there, pretty much similes everywhere. The actual plot pops up now and then but is lost over and over as it gasps for breath (see what I did there).
There’s no saving it I’m afraid. I fear even Mrs W would have put this one down and given up, unlike me who made it through to the end for the sake of a book club.

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