A Good Wife - by Samra Zafar & Meg Masters (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Despite facing years of abuse after arriving in Canada as a teenage bride in a hastily arranged marriage, nothing could stop Samra Zafar from pursuing her dreams

At fifteen, Samra Zafar lives with her family in Pakistan and has big dreams: she will go to university and forge her own path in the world. Then, with almost no warning, her dreams evaporate when her parents arrange her marriage to a stranger in Canada. Her new husband and his family promise that the marriage and the move will be a fulfillment of her dreams. But as the walls of Zafar's new home slowly become a prison, she realizes how deeply she has been betrayed.

Desperate to get out and refusing to give up, she hatches an escape plan for herself and her two daughters. Somehow, she finds the strength to not only build a new future, but also to walk away from her past, ignoring the pleas of her family and risking cultural isolation by divorcing her husband.

A Good Wife tells Zafar's harrowing and inspiring story, following her from a young girl with big dreams to a woman who finds strength in the face of oppression and battles through to empowerment.

From the Back Cover

She faced years of abuse after arriving in Canada as a teenage bride in a hastily arranged marriage, but nothing could stop Samra Zafar from pursuing her dreams.

At sixteen, Samra Zafar had big dreams. She was going to go to university and forge her own path. Then, with almost no warning, those dreams were snatched away when she was suddenly married to a stranger at seventeen and had to leave behind her family in Pakistan and move to Canada. Her new husband and his family vowed that the marriage and the move would be a fulfillment of her dream, not a betrayal of it. But as the walls of their home slowly became a prison, Samra realized their promises were empty ones.

Desperate to get out and refusing to give up, she hatched an escape plan for herself and her two daughters. Slowly, over the months and years, she found the strength not only to build a new future, but also to walk away from her past.

A Good Wife tells the harrowing and inspiring story of a young girl who grows into a woman of courage and power in the face of oppression.

Review Quotes

"Whether you are trying to escape a life you never chose or the one you did, Samra's resolve and ingenuity will inspire you to honor every flicker of longing for freedom." - Shauna Singh Baldwin, author of The Tiger Claw and The Selector of Soul
"Samra Zafar's harrowing story of escaping her abusive marriage in Canada--arranged when she was just a teenager in Pakistan--might read like a taut domestic thriller, but A Good Wife is all too painfully real. I cried while reading this book, but I was also left in awe of Zafar's epic grit and bravery. Her story will stay with you long after the last hope-filled page is turned." - Lisa Gabriele, author of the bestselling novel The Winters
"I cried while reading this book, but I was also left in awe of Samra Zafar's epic grit and bravery. Her story will stay with you long after the last hope-filled page is turned." - Lisa Gabriele, author of the bestselling novel The Winters
"A thoroughly engaging story of strength, feminism and refusal to conform to societal and familial expectations. I found it difficult to put this book down." - Cea Sunrise Person, bestselling author of North of Normal
"Thorny and surprising, Samra Zafar's story is all the more heartbreaking for its complexities. Zafar has penned a rare memoir, a life story worth reading and an emotional rollercoaster that will leave you feeling empowered at the end. This is a modern-day fairy tale where the heroine saves her own life." - Sharon Bala, bestselling author of The Boat People
"Samra Zafar has penned a rare memoir, a life story worth reading and an emotional rollercoaster that will leave you feeling empowered at the end. This is a modern-day fairy tale where the heroine saves her own life." - Sharon Bala, bestselling author of The Boat People
"The shining result of a partnership between a sensitive writer and an indomitable survivor of domestic abuse, this memoir chronicles the ebbs and flows of Samra Zafar's courage as her home life began to control her every moment and shatter her spirit. To follow her descent into self-doubt and despair is to delve deeply into financial limitations, the requirements of assimilation into Canada, and constraints she faced as a parent. Whether you are trying to escape a life you never chose or the one you did, Samra's resolve and ingenuity will inspire you to honor every flicker of longing for freedom." - Shauna Singh Baldwin, author of The Tiger Claw and The Selector of Soul