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    The Ambassador's Wife
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    The Ambassador's Wife
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    The Ambassador's Wife
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Ambassador's Wife

    Written by Jennifer Steil

    Narrated by Orlagh Cassidy and Euan Morton

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From a real-life ambassador's wife comes a harrowing novel about the kidnapping of an American woman in the Middle East and the heartbreaking choices she and her husband each must make in the hope of being reunited.

    When bohemian artist Miranda falls in love with Finn, the British ambassador to an Arab country, she finds herself thrust into a life for which she has no preparation. The couple and their toddler daughter live in a stately mansion with a staff to meet their every need, but for Miranda even this luxury comes at a price: the loss of freedom. Trailed everywhere by bodyguards to protect her from the dangers of a country wracked by civil war and forced to give up work she loves, she finds her world shattered when she is taken hostage, an act of terror with wide-reaching consequences.

    Diplomatic life is a far cry from Miranda's first years in Mazrooq, which were spent painting and mentoring a group of young Muslim women, teaching them to draw in ways forbidden in their culture. As the novel weaves together past and present, we come to see how Finn and Miranda's idealism and secrets they have each sought to hide have placed them and those who trust them in peril. And when Miranda grows close to a child who shares her captivity, it is not clear that even being set free would restore the simple happiness that once was hers and Finn's. Suspenseful and moving, The Ambassador's Wife is a story of love, marriage, and friendship tested by impossible choices.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 28, 2015
    ISBN9781101890103
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The Ambassador's Wife

    3.5/5

    18 ratings3 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A very contemporary story of the wife of a British ambassador to a Middle-Eastern country who is kidnapped by extremists and finds herself caring for a motherless infant while being held captive. The fictionalized country is vividly portrayed as a place of extreme beauty and extreme attitudes, and could easily stand-in for any number of countries in the Middle East. A very human depiction of a story seen too often on the nightly news.
    • 3/5
      Miranda is a free spirited American living in the fictional country Arab country of Mazrooq. She is a bisexual artist, who paints nudes. An ideal candidate for living in a Muslim country. She becomes enthralled with the country and despite being a liberal feminist she finds herself at home in a world that represses its women. She starts teaching a small group how to draw and paint. Then one day she falls in love with a man she meets walking around the old city. Little does she know how much this man will change her life – for he is the British Ambassador. Their relationship follows the normal course and soon she is living at the Residence and she finds herself the Ambassador’s wife with all of the security restrictions that brings.Miranda has always lived a life of unfettered freedom so she feels very constrained in her new life. As much as she loves her husband Finn and then her child she misses her ability to do what she wants when she wants. She does go out on a hike with some women friends and her bodyguard and the worst happens – she is kidnapped. This leads to the odd part of the book. It’s also the driving part of the plot and I don’t want to spoil the story. I was just a bit confuses as to the whole of the kidnapping scenario. Some questions are answered at the end but others just hang in the desert.I was intrigued by the two lead characters but they were almost impossible to believe. Miranda has a little anxiety about fitting into the life she has now chosen but she moves into what is generally a closed, tight society with minimal problem. Finn is the perfect diplomat in every way, never taking a wrong turn until he did – once – and it seemed designed to only serve the plot further down the line. I’m still confused about some things that went on in the book and Miranda for all her outward support and supposed love for the women of this suppressed country was very selfish in her motives in my opinion. Her actions hurt far more people than they helped.
    • 4/5
      The Ambassador’s Wife by Jennifer Steil is the story of Miranda, wife of a British Ambassador, who faces challenges beyond her worst nightmares when she is abducted by terrorists. Her life in the Middle East, while enviable to many, had its drawbacks: surrounded by staff and bodyguards wherever she ventured, her autonomy was sacrificed, challenging her very sense of being. In a twist of irony, the life that she so longed to lead was swept away by kidnappers who would stop at nothing to fulfill their agenda. Steil, through her carefully crafted and atmospheric writing, effortlessly draws readers into this suspenseful story about relationships and the ultimate challenges faced by one woman. Steil further solidifies her place in the genre with this thought provoking, high-tension, and, at times, heartrending novel. The Ambassador’s Wife is an excellent choice for those who enjoy well written, thought provoking suspense novels and it would make an excellent book discussion group pick.