WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
Virginia Miner, a fifty-something, unmarried tenured professor, is in
London to work on her new book about children's folk rhymes. Despite
carrying a U.S. passport, Vinnie feels essentially English and rather
looks down on her fellow Americans. But in spite of that, she is drawn
into a mortifying and oddly satisfying affair with an Oklahoman tourist
who dresses more Bronco Billy than Beau Brummel.
Also in London is Vinnie's colleague Fred Turner, a handsome, flat
broke, newly separated, and thoroughly miserable young man trying to
focus on his own research. Instead, he is distracted by a beautiful and
unpredictable English actress and the world she belongs to.
Both American, both abroad, and both achingly lonely, Vinnie and Fred
play out their confused alienation and dizzying romantic liaisons in
Alison Lurie's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Smartly written, poignant,
and witty, Foreign Affairs remains an enduring comic masterpiece.
"A splendid comedy, very bright, brilliantly written in a confident and
original manner. The best book by one of our finest writers."
-Elizabeth Hardwick
"There is no American writer I have read with more constant pleasure and
sympathy. . . . Foreign Affairs earns the same shelf as Henry James
and Edith Wharton."
-John Fowles
"If you manage to read only a few good novels a year, make this one of
them."
-USA Today
"An ingenious, touching book."
-Newsweek
"A flawless jewel."
-Philadelphia Inquirer
