Love Lockdown

“A tour de force. Elizabeth Greenwood goes to the heart of our prisons’ modern romantic relationships, and returns with a morality tale about what’s gained and lost when America perpetuates the carceral state.” —Vanessa Grigoriadis, author of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus

A compassionate and riveting investigative look into romantic relationships between incarcerated people and their spouses on the outside from the author of the “mesmerizing” (Elle) Playing Dead and perfect for fans of the #1 New York Times bestseller Three Women.

What is it like to fall in love with someone in prison?

Over the course of five years, Elizabeth Greenwood followed the ups and downs of five couples who met during incarceration. In Love Lockdown, she pulls back the curtain on the lives of the husbands and wives supporting some of the 2.3 million people in prisons around the United States. In the vein of Modern Love, this book shines a light on how these relationships reflect the desire and delusion we all experience in our romantic pairings.

Love Lockdown infiltrates spaces many of us have only heard whispers of—from conjugal visits to prison weddings to relationships between the incarcerated themselves. A fascinating and unputdownable deep-dive from the “quirky, engaging, and surprisingly uplifting” (Eric Weiner, New York Times bestselling author) journalist Elizabeth Greenwood, Love Lockdown will change the way you look at the American prison system and perhaps relationships in general.