Synopses & Reviews
As a favor for a friend, a bright and talented young woman volunteered to read her poetry to a group of prisoners during a Black History Month program. It was an encounter that would alter her life forever, because it was there, in the prison, that she would meet Rashid, the man who was to become her friend, her confidant, her husband, her lover, her soul mate. At the time, Rashid was serving a sentence of twenty years to life for his part in a murder. The Prisoner's Wife is a testimony, for wives and mothers, friends and families. It's a tribute to anyone who has ever chosen, against the odds, to love.
Review
Nikki Giovanni It is not easy to trust your heart, but here is a love story. The Prisoner's Wife takes us through not the dungeon of emotions, but the sunshine of hope. If we can continue to find a reason to care, we can all be saved. This book needs to be read by anyone who has...paid a price for love.
Review
Angela Y. Davis A powerful and provocative book -- everyone should read it.
Review
Booklist (starred review) asha bandele's writing soars with emotion. And the reader's emotions soar as well, not because of a shared experience but because her highly polished and skillful writing makes one feel her pain and joy. This is a romantic but realistic story, told with a directness and honesty that makes us know that however impossible the problems asha and Rashid face, we can question neither her motives nor sanity.
Review
Nikki Giovanni It is not easy to trust your heart, but here is a love story. The Prisoner's Wife takes us through not the dungeon of emotions but the sunshine of hope. Good for all of us. If we can continue to find a reason to care, we all can be saved. This book needs to be read by anyone who has ever hummed a tune on the day the rent was due; by anyone who tapped her foot on the day the kids needed money for the school trip; by anyone who is sitting drinking coffee because she's hungry and there isn't enough to go around. By anyone who has paid a price for love.
Review
Bob Shacochis The Prisoner's Wife, for all the hardship and pain and ugliness and futility and anger it describes, is love-swollen and beautiful. It's powerful, poignant, persuasive. It's gut-wrenching, soul-shaking, heartbreaking. The book is a cry of love in a cold, bleak wilderness and, as such, it underscores and defines our basic humanity, and our abiding strength to endure.
Review
Angela Y. Davis asha bandele tells the story of a love that flourishes in the constricted space between freedom and captivity. Ironically, the captive whom she loves helps her to extricate herself from her own emotional prison. In celebrating a triumph of the heart, The Prisoner's Wife also challenges the ideologies spawned by the prison industrial complex. It compels us to imagine a future in which prisons would cease to be spurious guarantors of security in the "free world." This is a powerful and provocative book -- everyone should read it.
Synopsis
The Prisoner's Wife is a beautiful story about love that overcomes every obstacle and thrives against all odds. As a favor for a friend, a bright and talented young woman volunteered to read her poetry to a group of prisoners during a Black History Month program. It was an encounter that would alter her life forever, because it was there, in the prison, that she would meet Rashid, the man who was to become her friend, her confidant, her husband, her lover, her soul mate. At the time, Rashid was serving a sentence of twenty years to life for his part in a murder. The Prisoner's Wife is a testimony, for wives and mothers, friends and families. It's a tribute to anyone who has ever chosen, against the odds, to love.
Synopsis
The Prisoner's Wife is a beautiful story about love that overcomes every obstacle and thrives against all odds. "A powerful and provocative book--everyone should read it." --Angela Y. Davis
"Romantic but realistic...told with a directness and honesty." --Booklist, starred review
"Mesmerizing and disconcerting, offering insights into why caged birds sing."--Kirkus Reviews
As a favor for a friend, a bright and talented young woman volunteered to read her poetry to a group of prisoners during a Black History Month program. It was an encounter that would alter her life forever, because it was there, in the prison, that she would meet Rashid, the man who was to become her friend, her confidant, her husband, her lover, her soul mate. At the time, Rashid was serving a sentence of twenty years to life for his part in a murder. The Prisoner's Wife is a testimony, for wives and mothers, friends and families. It's a tribute to anyone who has ever chosen, against the odds, to love.
About the Author
asha bandele is also the author of a book of poetry,
absence in the palms of my hands. An editor in
Essence magazine, she is a frequent spoken-word performer and lecturer on campuses and in communities accross the United States and in Europe. asha lives in Brooklyn, New York.