Eileen Blair, wife and partner of George Orwell, is brought out of her husband’s shadow in this riveting biography, which follows the couples’ tireless campaign to expose difficult political truths through art.

The end of the world is at hand. The Roaring Twenties are over, fascist forces are on the rise across Europe, and the dream of a workers’ paradise is all but dead. But in the midst of these turbulent times, a turbulent love story unfolds—one that would forever reshape our perception of totalitarianism.

Mrs. Orwell follows poet Eileen Blair and her husband, George Orwell, as they forge the professional and romantic partnership that would eventually bring us Animal Farm and 1984. From a honeymoon fighting fascists in the Spanish Civil War, to a narrow escape from Stalin’s agents and an even narrower escape from the London blitz, the Blairs’ campaign against fascism would bring them face-to-face with some of the greatest threats of the 1930s. But while Orwell struggles to make his voice heard against the pressures of political censorship, Eileen must fight to preserve her own voice within a marriage that threatened to consume her.

This sweeping account of Eileen Blair’s brief but dazzling life casts new light on a long-overlooked figure, and her persistent defense of that most beloved, most vulnerable principle: the power of the pen.