Women Outside The Walls

Alma, Kitty and Hattie have one thing in common. The men that they love and married are in prison. Wives visit their men behind bars every day and wonder how their lives brought them to this place. This story focuses on three of these women. Alma is an exotic dancer who seems, at first glance, to be a bit of a nitwit. But on closer inspection she has a street-smart wisdom and humor. Hattie is a hard working African American with four children who is trying to keep her family together. Then there is Kitty, a wealthy socialite, who in spite of the shame and embarrassment of visiting a prison where her husband refuses to see her, doggedly visits every other week. In a series of flash backs we see these women when they lived normal lives with their husbands and children. The plot explodes when Chelsea, Alma and Charlie's daughter, disappears. One visiting day something happens that will change each of their lives forever as the visiting room erupts with violence and heartbreak. This story is based in truth and was inspired while the author was at the Dixon Correctional Facility in Dixon, Illinois, waiting to visit a confessed murderer. It was heart breaking to observe the women and children waiting to see their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers who might be incarcerated for a few months or for life.

I always knew it would come out one day. They are finding everyone who has stayed hidden. They would have come to me in the end. Hamburg, 1942 Seventeen-year-old Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about where she is going. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. She doesn't expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket, or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again. Desperate to forget her grief, she sees an advert for a secretary in a prison, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make. London, 2016 Ninety-year-old Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbours know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don't know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her? A gripping read that will break your heart and have you hooked, perfect for fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and My Name is Eva. The Woman Outside the Walls will take you on an emotional journey and show you that in war, even when you are on the wrong side, you can still do the right thing... What everyone is saying about Suzanne Goldring: 'I just couldn't put this one down. I loved every page, and I went through an entire box of tissues before I was done. You will keep turning the pages until the very end because you just won't be able to put it down at all.' Crossroad Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I could not put this book down, and heaven help anyone that tried to disturb my reading!! I absolutely loved this book! I laughed, I cried, I cheered... what a fantastic read.' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Wow! Where do I even begin? I was captivated from the very first page right up until the very last. So easy to get swept up into the story and lose yourself completely within the pages. Captivating, compelling and heart-breaking... Absolutely brilliant.' Confessions of a Bookaholic, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Women at the Wall is the first ethnographic study of how the arrest, trial, imprisonment, and release of male criminals affects their families, particularly their wives. It relies on first-person accounts by prisoners' wives, providing details about the changing texture of their marital relationships and the accompanying stigmatization. From this book we learn about the effects of enforced spousal separation, and the control husbands maintain even during incarceration. We also learn that wives devise ingenious interpretations and explanations regarding their husbands' criminality, and how they attempt to establish stable, conventional lives for themselves while supporting their husbands through the various stages of the criminal justice system. These women reveal not only their hardships and losses, but also their resourcefulness in coping with their husbands' criminality, their families and friends, and the prison system itself.

Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're inseparable—a family. When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for generations.

'I am hungry for your presence. I hanker for the great blaze of your glance which when you turn it on me, will burn out the husk of my body and draw my soul to you.' Julia O'Faolian's second novel, first published in 1973, offers a rich, vivid portrait of the political and religious turmoil of sixth-century Gaul, wherein we find Radegunda, wife of King Clotair having been seized by him as a prize of war. Radegunda builds a convent, a refuge for the Brides of Christ, and there becomes renowned for her austerity and mysticism. Her religion, however, is fanatical, and her quest for sainthood will serve to undermine the seeming calm of the retreat she has made. 'Vibrant and strange... [a] journey into a darker, wilder moment of history.' Sarah Dunant, Guardian

In this full length stage play, three ordinary women have one thing in common. The men they love are in prison. Wives visit their men behind bars every day and wonder how their lives brought them to this place. This story focuses on three of these women. Alma is an exotic dancer who seems, at first glance, to be a bit of a nit-wit. But on closer inspection she's found to have a street-smart wisdom and humor. Hattie is a hard working African American with four children who is trying to keep her family together. Then there is Kitty, a wealthy socialite, who in spite of the shame and embarrassment of visiting a prison where her husband refuses to see her, doggedly visits every week. In a series of flash backs the reader explores the lives of these women when they lived normal lives with their husbands and children. The plot explodes when Chelsea, Alma and Charlie's daughter, disappears. One visiting day something happens that will change each of their lives forever as the visiting room erupts in violence and heartbreak.

And hide is what Anna does throughout the course of this amazing book. She retreats into the fabric of a big old house, building a series of passageways and secondary walls that allow her to share the life of the house unseen by her mother and sisters. As Anna says, her family is not observant. But Anna herself is a quirky and perceptive witness to the life she has chosen to escape. Then a mysterious message is thrusted through a crack in the wall, a message that gives Anna a reason to emerge.... Once again Patrice Kindl has created a magical world and an irresistible heroine.

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens the very fabric of the multiverse in this stunning debut, a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging. WINNER OF THE COMPTON CROOK AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD • “Gorgeous writing, mind-bending world-building, razor-sharp social commentary, and a main character who demands your attention—and your allegiance.”—Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—NPR, Library Journal, Book Riot Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total. On this dystopian Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now what once made her marginalized has finally become an unexpected source of power. She has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security. But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world but the entire multiverse. “Clever characters, surprise twists, plenty of action, and a plot that highlights social and racial inequities in astute prose.”—Library Journal (starred review)