The Dictator’s Wife (2022) by Freya Berry asks the question: “How complicit are the wives of dictators in the crimes of dictators?”

Marija Popa is the dictator’s wife. Her husband, Constantin - the ruler for 30 years of a fictional eastern European country, Yannussia - has been murdered and she is now standing trial for multiple crimes.

We find out early in the novel that Marija was adopted as a small child into a wealthy Yannussian family.

The narrator is Laura Lazarescu, a lawyer from London who is the junior associate in a team of 3 lawyers hired by Marija Popa.

Laura’s family fled Yannussia when Laura was 7. Before that, Laura’s mother worked in the factory founded by Marija’s adoptive family and run by Marija when she was First Lady.