From the acclaimed author of Red Island House, Andrea Leeās brilliant, outrageous collection of short stories confronts identity, desire, colliding cultures, and self-discovery.
In vivid prose infused with wicked irony, award-winning author Andrea Lee takes us on a dazzling international journey into the hearts and minds of a number of extraordinary womenāintelligent, cosmopolitan, and fiercely independentāwho, with wit and style, grapple with questions of identity in an increasingly connected world where everyone has become, in some way, a foreigner.
In āThe Birthday Present,ā a seemingly conventional American wife explores the wilder shores of marital devotion by giving her Italian husband an outrageous gift. āWinter Barleyā is the account, alternately lyrical and perverse, of the brief love affair in Scotland between an elderly European prince and a thoroughly modern New England beauty half his age. And in the collectionās title story, āInteresting Women,ā a woman on vacation in Thailand reflects with wry detachment on the confessional relationships that spring up between women (āanother day, another soul laid bareā), before falling into one herself, which culminates in a hilarious and absurd odyssey through the jungle.
Leeās beautifully crafted stories offer a rare combination: a sensual evocation of the moment, and profound insight into the underlying strugglesāof gender, race, and classāthat continue to shape our world. Critically acclaimed when it was first published, this collection is ready to be embraced by a new generation of readers.