Embassy Wife, Katie Crouch
Embassy Wife, Katie Crouch
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Embassy Wife

Author: Katie Crouch

Narrator: Marni Penning

Unabridged: 13 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/01/2021


Synopsis

Persephone Wilder, a displaced genius posing as the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia, takes her job as a representative of her country seriously and comes up with an intricate set of rules to survive a range of problems: how to dress in hundred-degree weather without showing too much skin, how not to look drunk at embassy functions, and how to eat roasted oryx with grace. She also suspects her husband is not actually the ambassadors general counsel but instead a secret agent in the CIA. Ever the embassy wife, she takes the new trailing spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing. Amanda Evans has just arrived in Namibia, mere weeks after giving up her Silicon Valley job, as her husband, Mark, has accepted a Fulbright. But once they arrive in the sub-Saharan desert, it becomes clear that Mark, who lived in Namibia two decades earlier, had other reasons for returning. Their marriage, which seemed solid in the safety of home, feels tenuous in the glaring heat of the Kalahari. Mark, it seems, has secrets born twenty years ago, and this journey is actually a quest to find a woman he left behind. When Amandas daughter becomes involved in an actual international conflict, lines are drawn in the sand, and it is clear that her own government wont stand up for her or her daughter. Propulsive and provocative, this satirical page-turner compellingly explores the limits of human resiliency and loyalty.

About Katie Crouch

Katie Crouch is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Girls in Trucks, Men and Dogs, and Abroad. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Slate, and Salon. A MacDowell Fellow, she teaches at Dartmouth College and lives in Vermont.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Darla on July 05, 2021

The diverging paths of a trio of women connected to the Namibia Embassy makes for a fascinating story. I enjoyed learning more about this country. This would have gotten more stars from me, but the 'orange man bad' narrative kept popping up its ugly head. Sure there was a mess up on pronouncing the......more

Goodreads review by Kasa on July 23, 2021

Katie Crouch uses her first-hand experiences of living in Namibia to craft this wonderful novel in which two American "trailers" (partners who accompany their spouses to diplomatic posts) come to love a place they'd known little about before landing there. Perceptively, such people are regarded by t......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on August 02, 2021

The privileged are in Africa doing what? Sending their children to international schools in Namibia Africa and staying bored. These embassy wives followed their husbands and have nothing really to do. I mean why would someone end up there? Is there an agenda? Obsession? Love? Regret? I think all of......more

Goodreads review by Judy on October 10, 2021

Well, the cover is great. The location, Namibia, an African country with a complex history, is exotic. I was expecting something different than I got. As anyone who follows me knows, I am so very picky about satire. Actually the satire is well done but most of the women in this book are so flighty a......more

Goodreads review by Poptart19 (the name’s ren) on October 24, 2021

2.5 stars This is not a bad book, but I did not enjoy it. I could nitpick several more things than I have mentioned in my critiques below, but I don’t have the patience to expound on them all. This book is decently written, but my main problem with it is that I didn’t enjoy neither the characters no......more