The Expats--A Novel

My book list varies from books I'd be embarrassed to share, to those I want everyone I know to go out and read right then so we can talk about them.

Sometimes the urgent reads aren't the best ones and I just want to hear if someone else feels the same as I do; The Marriage Plot currently sits at the top of that list.

And then there are the books that scratch an itch, that come just at the right time and that make the life you're living more fun and enjoyable because you can shake your head and go, 'oh, yeah. I get that.'
For me, The Expats--A Novel by Chris Pavone is that kind of book.

{put it in your beach bag}

It's fun and risky and sometimes sexy but the 'oh, yeah' moments come from the insights into expat life. If you've ever lived abroad you'll see yourself and wish you were as exciting and complicated as the heroine.

Every one of you who lives somewhere other than your home country will feel it too.

The freeing feeling of reinvention, the loneliness that no one back home can understand, the foot in two places tugging and the fast friendships and immediate recognition of yes we connect or no, no we don't at all, are all perfectly expressed. I read it on my way to Venice with the Besties last month and kept nodding my head in agreement. I probably looked like a fool sitting in CDG 2F but hey, what do I care? I'm a misfit--alien and removed by degrees at all times.

Chris writes as woman, something that can rankle if done wrong. You can feel it sometimes but his real-life days at the school gates in Luxembourg taught him a lot about how we women sometimes feel being the non-working spouse in a foreign country. There's only so much satisfaction you can derive from coffee mornings and cleaning toilets and he totally gets that.

The plot is quick, jumping back and forth, unfolding the story as you go but never losing you on the trip. It's fun, smart and engrossing. And right up your chemin if you find yourself living a life as an expat.

Put it on your summer beach reading list and then tell me what you thought.

If you read Jeffrey Eugenides' latest, please tell me how it left you feeling. I just have to know.

And if you'd like to see my reading list or offer any suggestions, I'm on GoodReads.