Foreign Affairs

In Alison Lurie's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Foreign Affairs, Virginia Miner, an unmarried professor in her 50s, finds herself in London, immersed in research for her book on children's folk rhymes. While navigating her feelings of being both American and English, she becomes involved in a humorous and awkward affair with a quirky Oklahoman tourist. Meanwhile, her colleague, Fred Turner, a recently separated academic, grapples with his distractions caused by an enchanting local actress. Through the lens of their entwined lives, Lurie explores themes of loneliness, alienation, and romantic entanglements with sharp wit and poignant insight.