From the acclaimed author of Red Island House, Andrea Leeâs 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 womenâintelligent, cosmopolitan, and fiercely independentâwho, with wit and style, grapple with questions of identity in an increasingly connected world where everyone has become, in some way, a foreigner.
In âThe Birthday Present,â a seemingly conventional American wife explores the wilder shores of marital devotion by giving her Italian husband an outrageous gift. âWinter Barleyâ 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 collectionâs title story, âInteresting Women,â a woman on vacation in Thailand reflects with wry detachment on the confessional relationships that spring up between women (âanother day, another soul laid bareâ), before falling into one herself, which culminates in a hilarious and absurd odyssey through the jungle.
Leeâs beautifully crafted stories offer a rare combination: a sensual evocation of the moment, and profound insight into the underlying strugglesâof gender, race, and classâthat 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.