book review the expats

Kate Moore #1

Chris pavone.

326 pages, Hardcover

First published March 6, 2012

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by Chris Pavone ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2012

A thoroughly competent and enjoyable thriller with unanticipated twists that will keep readers guessing till the end.

An impressive thriller by first-time novelist Pavone, with almost more double-crosses than a body can stand.

Dexter and Kate Moore move to Luxembourg with their two young children so Dexter can make a pile of money working as a security consultant for a bank. Unknown to him, Kate has been working for the CIA but has recently quit, disgusted by her role as an agent occasionally called on to terminate wayward enemies. In Luxembourg they meet Bill and Julia, an attractive couple with whom they begin to socialize, but, as in all good thrillers, nothing is as it seems. Bill and Julia are FBI agents hot on the trail of the seemingly innocuous and nerdy Dexter, whose knowledge of bank security—trying to find breaches in the system—also allows him to find cunning access points, and it seems he may have stolen €50 million. That her husband has a secret life he hasn’t been sharing surprises Kate...who, of course, also has a secret life she hasn’t been sharing. Kate pushes herself to try to find out whether Bill and Julia are right about Dexter or whether they’re trying to run a scam of their own, for it appears that Julia in particular is not to be trusted. The novel switches chronology from a series of flashbacks to how Kate and Dexter’s life unravels in Luxembourg and how Julia and Bill catch up with the Moores in Paris a year later. While Kate occasionally has to rely on former CIA contacts to help straighten out the mess she finds herself in, she shows herself quite capable of ruthlessness and venality.

Pub Date: March 6, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-307-95635-4

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011

SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION

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by Max Brooks

BOOK TO SCREEN

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUSPENSE | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER

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by Kathy Reichs

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By Marilyn Stasio

• March 9, 2012

Luxembourg sounds perfect for a spy looking for a nice dull place to retire to. As Chris Pavone dryly notes in his smartly executed first novel, THE EXPATS (Crown, $26), “nobody dreams of living in Luxembourg.” Nevertheless, a burned-out C.I.A. operative named Kate Moore grabs her chance to quit the agency and reinvent herself when one of the grand duchy’s secretive private banks hires her husband, Dexter, to redesign its electronic security systems.

But after leaving her government cover job in Washington, packing up the children and engineering the move abroad, Kate discovers that she’s joined the multinational ranks of expat wives who tend to never-ending domestic chores and entertain themselves by going to lunch and taking cooking classes and occasionally sleeping with their tennis instructors. “She used to be a person who did things . . . life-and-death things,” Kate reflects. “Now she was folding laundry.”

That disorienting sense of having lost one’s identity is something expats share with ex-spies and unhappy wives. So Kate finds new cause to panic when her loving and endearingly obtuse husband (who has no idea he married a spook) starts taking a lot of business trips and won’t talk about his job. Is she projecting her own habit of keeping secrets and telling lies, or is Dexter “much more clever, much more deceptive and much more devious than she’d thought possible”?

Kate’s furtive investigations into her husband’s activities — and those of an American couple who seem very interested in the Moores’ private life — are more entertaining than suspenseful. But Pavone is full of sharp insights into the parallels between political espionage and marital duplicity, and he understands the disorientation Kate shares with other expats — including Pavone himself, who joined that community when he gave up a career in publishing after his wife took a job in Luxembourg.

The absence of a story angle linking Kate’s personal quest to some larger issue of international consequence keeps this novel outside the mainstream of espionage fiction. But the intimate look it offers into the experiences of people who exist in a boring but happy limbo — popping down to Paris for the weekend, driving to Hamburg, flying to Vienna, skiing the Swiss Alps — makes “The Expats” thoroughly captivating.

While every novel by Michael Robotham must be approached with caution, the ones featuring Joe O’Loughlin come with a special warning. That’s because O’Loughlin, a clinical psychologist who teaches at Bath University and serves as a consultant on difficult criminal cases, attracts such problematical clients: “the cutters, the groomers, the addicts, the narcissists, the sociopaths and the sexual predators.” Sienna Hegarty, the 14-year-old girl who turns up covered in blood in BLEED FOR ME (Mulholland/Little, Brown, $25.99), is a cutter. But this time the blood is from someone else: Sienna’s father, a retired cop, lying in her bedroom with his throat slit. Clearly, this is the kind of ugly job that would appeal to the professor’s peculiar sensibilities, and it gets much uglier after he works up a full case history on Sienna.

Robotham writes with grave tenderness about unhappy people caught in terrible situations — including his sleuth, who has Parkinson’s disease and is in perpetual mourning for his broken marriage. Yet O’Loughlin never caves in. Succinctly put, he’s got the emotional constitution of everyone who plays on his pub’s over-35 soccer team: “We don’t confide. We never disclose an intimacy. We are men.”

Fans of Jane Whitefield know what to expect from this fearless Indian guide in Thomas Perry’s quick-witted capers: cunning strategies, clever disguises, ingenious escape tactics and breathtaking cross-country chases. Perry delivers to order in POISON FLOWER (Mysterious Press/Grove/Atlantic, $24), which opens with Jane helping an innocent man escape from the criminal court building in downtown Los Angeles. But when Jane is captured and tortured by the sadistic villains of this novel, she draws on a character trait inherited from her Seneca ancestors: the stoic strength of the One Who Stops, a warrior who allows his fellow braves to escape by staying behind and fighting to the death. Although Jane doesn’t have to make quite such a sacrifice, her suffering will surely toughen her for the next adventure.

Meet Frieda Klein, a London psychotherapist and the cerebral protagonist of BLUE MONDAY (Pamela Dorman/Viking, $26.95), which the married partners who write as Nicci French have announced as the first book in a new series. Although she’s antisocial in a self-conscious way, Frieda has the interesting habit of taking long, lonesome walks in the middle of the night along the ancient routes of the city’s “secret, unnoticed, mysterious” underground rivers while meditating on the creepy head cases the police are always bringing her.

In her rather bizarre debut, the touchy shrink treats a patient haunted by vivid dreams of a child exactly like a little redheaded boy who has been kidnapped and is presumed dead — and just like another child who went missing under similar circumstances many years ago. It’s a neat puzzle with a satisfying resolution and a terrific twist at the end. But beyond the logical explanations, the atmosphere of those late-night walks is what really chills the blood and makes us look forward to . . . “Bloody Tuesday,” perhaps?

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The Expats : Book summary and reviews of The Expats by Chris Pavone

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Published Mar 2012 336 pages Genre: Thrillers Publication Information

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"Starred Review. An impressive thriller by first-time novelist Pavone, with almost more double-crosses than a body can stand... An enjoyable thriller with unanticipated twists that will keep readers guessing till the end." - Kirkus Reviews "Starred Review. The sheer amount of bombshell plot twists are nothing short of extraordinary, but it's Pavone's portrayal of Kate and her quest to find meaning in her charade of an existence that makes this book such a powerful read." - Publishers Weekly "Starred Review. Brilliant, insanely clever, and delectably readable, this debut thriller breaks the espionage genre bounds with its American-as-apple-pie heroine." - Library Journal "Starred Review. European locales, information on private banks and cybercrime, and the particulars of expats' quotidian but comfortable lives ooze verisimilitude. A must for espionage fans." - Booklist "I often thought I was reading the early works of Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, and Robert Ludlum. Smart, clever suspense, skillfully plotted - The Expats is a lot of fun to read." - John Grisham "Bristling with suspense and elegantly crafted, The Expats introduces a compelling and powerful female protagonist you won't soon forget. Well done!" - Patricia Cornwell

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Chris Pavone Author Biography

Chris Pavone is author of five international thrillers: The Expats (2012), The Accident (2014), The Travelers (2016), The Paris Diversion (2019), and Two Nights in Lisbon (2022). His novels have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times , USA Today , Wall Street Journal , Washington Post , Chicago Tribune , and IndieNext ; have won both the Edgar and Anthony awards, and have been shortlisted for the Strand, Macavity, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize; are in development for film and television; and have been translated into two dozen languages. He has written for outlets including the New York Times Book Review and Magazine , the Telegraph , and Salon ; has appeared on Face the Nation , Good Day New York , All Things Considered , and the BBC; and has been profiled on the arts' front ...

... Full Biography Link to Chris Pavone's Website

Name Pronunciation Chris Pavone: puh-vo-KNEE

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The almost universal appeal of Chris Pavone’s debut novel slowly becomes evident as the reader is gently tugged and prodded and then gradually catapulted through its plot, word by word and page by page. It’s a thriller in the same way that Scott Turow’s PRESUMED INNOCENT is a courtroom drama; while both at their surface are easily classified as genre fiction, the truth goes deeper. At heart, THE EXPATS is about the depth of the secrets that are kept by and between husband and wife, together and from each other.

"The almost universal appeal of Chris Pavone’s debut novel slowly becomes evident as the reader is gently tugged and prodded and then gradually catapulted through its plot, word by word and page by page.... Look for THE EXPATS to be a spring and summer travel companion for vacationers everywhere."

At first, it seems that it’s Kate Moore who’s the holder of all the trick cards in her marriage with her husband, Dexter. To the world, Kate is a working mother whose job concerns something vague and intangible, having to do with writing position papers for the U.S. State Department.  In reality, she works for the federal government, but her job is far more interesting than shuffling papers across a desk.

Dexter, an expert in computer system security, is a smart guy and a dependable husband but is somewhat lacking in ambition. He could have made millions during the computer software bubble but for poor timing (“missed it by that much,” as Maxwell Smart used to say), though he is content to more or less dawdle along. Furthermore, he is not especially good looking; he is one of those guys who you see with his wife and wonder How did he land her ? All in all, Kate and Dexter’s lives aren’t bad, even though they have difficulty making ends meet. And, of course, there are Kate’s job-related secrets, which she fears will come back to haunt her one day.

Everything changes when Dexter is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg, giving the Moores a chance to live in a new and exotic place and for Kate to quit her job --- her real one --- and reinvent herself. Unfortunately, the perfect life that she envisions never materializes. Dexter is working longer and longer hours for a secretive employer whose identity cannot be revealed due to what he refers to as “confidential issues.” Meanwhile, Kate is bored with being a full-time mother. Truth be told, she misses her old job. The exotic, cosmopolitan locale of their new home and their side trips to other destinations in Europe cannot make up for the drudgery of day-to-day housekeeping and the almost daily coffee klatches with the other ex-pat wives. Additionally, there is an incident from Kate’s past that  haunts her on a daily basis and threatens to turn her world upside down

That threat soon manifests itself in the form of another American couple who almost aggressively seeks Kate and Dexter’s friendship. Utilizing a skillset that is rusty but still reliable, Kate begins to do some investigating, not only of her new friends, but also of her own husband, whose behavior becomes more secretive by the day. She discovers fake offices, false records, and secret bank accounts containing staggering sums of money. As she slowly unravels the truth about Dexter, she finds that what she initially thought was a deception or two involves a long-range scheme that runs wider and deeper than she ever could have imagined and that she fears will swallow her family whole. She begins taking steps to avoid that, but her own past may well impede her efforts.

THE EXPATS is one of those (relatively) rare thriller novels that will appeal to men and women in equal measure. Everyone has secrets, many of which are kept for good reasons and differ from person to person, situation to situation. Anyone who has ever been in a personal relationship and kept a secret (or a carload of them) from their significant other will see themselves in Kate and Dexter, no matter how ordinary or mundane they might see their lives as being. The fact that it is set against the backdrop of several of Europe’s more sophisticated locales doesn’t hurt the story one bit, either. Look for THE EXPATS to be a spring and summer travel companion for vacationers everywhere.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on March 23, 2012

The Expats by Chris Pavone

• Publication Date: January 22, 2013
• Genres: Fiction , Spy Fiction , Suspense , Thriller
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Broadway
• ISBN-10: 0770435726
• ISBN-13: 9780770435721

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By Chris Pavone

By chris pavone read by mozhan marnò, category: suspense & thriller | spy novels, category: suspense & thriller | spy novels | audiobooks.

Jan 22, 2013 | ISBN 9780770435721 | 5-3/16 x 8 --> | ISBN 9780770435721 --> Buy

Dec 06, 2016 | ISBN 9780451498946 | 4-3/16 x 7-1/2 --> | ISBN 9780451498946 --> Buy

Mar 06, 2012 | ISBN 9780307956378 | ISBN 9780307956378 --> Buy

Mar 06, 2012 | 744 Minutes | ISBN 9780307990303 --> Buy

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Jan 22, 2013 | ISBN 9780770435721

Dec 06, 2016 | ISBN 9780451498946

Mar 06, 2012 | ISBN 9780307956378

Mar 06, 2012 | ISBN 9780307990303

744 Minutes

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About The Expats

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER EDGAR AWARD WINNER  *  ANTHONY AWARD WINNER BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE ACCIDENT Can we ever escape our secrets? In the cobblestoned streets of Luxembourg, Kate Moore’s days are filled with playdates and coffee mornings, her weekends spent in Paris and skiing in the Alps. But Kate is also guarding a tremendous, life-defining secret—one that’s become so unbearable that it begins to unravel her newly established expat life. She suspects that another American couple are not who they claim to be; her husband is acting suspiciously; and as she travels around Europe, she finds herself looking over her shoulder, increasingly terrified that her own past is catching up with her. As Kate begins to dig, to uncover the secrets of the people around her, she finds herself buried in layers of deceit so thick they threaten her family, her marriage, and her life.       Stylish and sophisticated, fiercely intelligent, and expertly crafted, The Expats proves Chris Pavone to be a writer of tremendous talent. Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content

Can we ever escape our secrets?   Kate Moore’s quiet Luxembourg days are filled with playdates and coffee mornings, her weekends in Paris and skiing the Alps. But Kate is also guarding a tremendous secret—one that’s becoming so unbearable it begins to unravel her new expat life. She suspects that another American couple are not who they claim to be, her husband is acting suspiciously, and as she travels around Europe, she finds herself looking over her shoulder, increasingly terrified that her own past is catching up with her. As Kate begins to dig, to uncover the secrets of the people around her, she finds herself buried in layers of deceit so thick they threaten her family, her marriage, and her life.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • EDGAR AWARD WINNER • ANTHONY AWARD WINNER “Expertly and intricately plotted, with a story spiraling into disaster and a satisfyingly huge amount of double-crossing, The Expats certainly doesn’t feel like a first novel.  This is an impressively assured entry to the thriller scene.” — The Guardian (UK) Can we ever escape our secrets? In the cobblestoned streets of Luxembourg, Kate Moore’s days are filled with playdates and coffee mornings, her weekends spent in Paris and skiing in the Alps. But Kate is also guarding a tremendous, life-defining secret—one that’s become so unbearable that it begins to unravel her newly established expat life. She suspects that another American couple are not who they claim to be; her husband is acting suspiciously; and as she travels around Europe, she finds herself looking over her shoulder, increasingly terrified that her own past is catching up with her. As Kate begins to dig, to uncover the secrets of the people around her, she finds herself buried in layers of deceit so thick they threaten her family, her marriage, and her life.    Stylish and sophisticated, fiercely intelligent, and expertly crafted, The Expats proves Chris Pavone to be a writer of tremendous talent. Now with an except from Chris Pavone’s novel, The Accident Also features Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content

The international thriller that Patricia Cornwell says is “bristling with suspense” about an American abroad who finds herself in complex web of intrigue.   Can We Ever Escape Our Secrets?   Kate Moore is a working mother, struggling to make ends meet, to raise children, to keep a spark in her marriage . . . and to maintain an increasingly unbearable life-defining secret. So when her husband is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg, she jumps at the chance to leave behind her double-life, to start anew.       She begins to reinvent herself as an expat, finding her way in a language she doesn’t speak, doing the housewifely things she’s never before done—playdates and coffee mornings, daily cooking and never-ending laundry. Meanwhile, her husband works incessantly, at a job Kate has never understood, for a banking client she’s not allowed to know. He’s becoming distant and evasive; she’s getting lonely and bored.       Then another American couple arrives. Kate soon becomes suspicious that these people are not who they say they are, and she’s terrified that her own past is catching up to her. So Kate begins to dig, to peel back the layers of deception that surround her. She discovers fake offices and shell corporations and a hidden gun, a mysterious farmhouse and numbered accounts with bewildering sums of money, and finally unravels the mind-boggling long-play con that threatens her family, her marriage, and her life.       Stylish and sophisticated, fiercely intelligent and expertly crafted, The Expats proves Chris Pavone to be a writer of tremendous talent.

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About Chris Pavone

Chris Pavone is the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Diversion, The Travelers, The Accident, and The Expats, winner of the Edgar and Anthony Awards for best first novel. He was a book editor for nearly two decades and… More about Chris Pavone

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER EDGAR AWARD WINNER ANTHONY AWARD WINNER “Sly. . . . Pavone strengthens this book with a string of head-spinning revelations in its last pages. . . . The tireless scheming of all four principals truly exceeds all sane expectations.” — The New York Times “Bombshell-a-minute. . . . Pavone creates a fascinating, complicated hero.” — Entertainment Weekly “A gripping spy drama and an artful study of the sometimes cat-and-mouse game of marriage.” — Family Circle “Smartly executed. . . . Pavone is full of sharp insights into the parallels between political espionage and marital duplicity. . . . Thoroughly captivating.” — The New York Times Book Review “Superb. . . . [Pavone] expertly draws readers along with well-timed clues and surprises. . . . An engineering marvel.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch “Expertly and intricately plotted, with a story spiraling into disaster and a satisfyingly huge amount of double-crossing, The Expats certainly doesn’t feel like a first novel.  This is an impressively assured entry to the thriller scene.” — The Guardian (UK) “Refreshingly original. . . . Part Ludlum in the pacing, part Le Carré in the complexity of story and character, but mostly Chris Pavone. . . . A thriller so good that you wonder what other ideas [Pavone] has up his cloak, right alongside the obligatory dagger.” — The Star-Ledger “Pavone plunges around with a plot-load of surprises…and he moves smoothly between the mundane and the melodramatic…The spinning of the plot is ingenious.” — The Washington Times “Amazing. . . . Impossible to put down. . . . Pavone invokes memories of the great writers of spy fiction of the past, and he has the chops to be mentioned with the best of them.” — Associated Press “A blast. . . . Pavone is spinning a fantastic tale with action that spans the globe.” — Dallas Morning News “Highly entertaining.” — Mystery Scene “Thoroughly enjoyable.” — Suspense Magazine “Hard to put down.” — San Francisco Bay Guardian “Stunningly assured. . . . An intricate, suspenseful plot that is only resolved in the final pages.” — Booklist (starred review) “Brilliant, insanely clever, and delectably readable.” — Library Journal (starred review) “Meticulously plotted, psychologically complex. . . . The sheer amount of bombshell plot twists are nothing short of extraordinary, but it’s Pavone’s portrayal of Kate and her quest to find meaning in her charade of an existence that makes this book such a powerful read.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Impressive. . . . With almost more double-crosses than a body can stand.” — Kirkus (starred review) “Bristling with suspense and elegantly crafted, The Expats introduces a compelling and powerful female protagonist you won’t soon forget. Well done!” — Patricia Cornwell “I often thought I was again reading the early works of Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, and Robert Ludlum. Smart, clever suspense, skillfully plotted, and a lot of fun to read.” — John Grisham “One of the best-written spy thrillers I’ve ever read. . . . A riveting story of great-game deceptions wrapped inside the smaller deceptions of marriage. At moments horrifying, hilarious, and very wise, The Expats has given Chris Pavone a permanent place on my short list of must-read authors.” — Olen Steinhauer “A gem. Clever, suspenseful with a jet fueled story that rockets from one corner of the globe to another, it is never less than a thrill a minute. . . . An absolute winner!” — Christopher Reich “Spy stories need to budge over to make space for Kate Moore—mother, wife, expat and far more than she appears. I loved her.” — Rosamund Lupton “Riveting.  One of the most accomplished debuts of recent years: not just a worthy addition to the literature of espionage and betrayal, but a fine portrait of a marriage disintegrating under the pressure of secrets and lies.” — John Connolly

Anthony Award WINNER 2013

Edgar Award WINNER 2013

Macavity Award NOMINEE 2013

Strand Magazine Critics Award NOMINEE 2012

L.A. Times Book Prize (Fiction) FINALIST 2012

Thriller Awards FINALIST 2013

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Common terms and phrases, about the author  (2016), bibliographic information.

CHRIS PAVONE

K ate Moore is a typical expat mom, newly transplanted from Washington DC to the quiet cobblestoned streets of Luxembourg. Her days are filled with coffee mornings and play-dates, her weekends with trips to Paris and Amsterdam. Kate is also guarding a tremendous, life-defining secret, one that’s becoming unbearable, indefensible. It’s also clear that another expat American couple are not really who they’re claiming to be; plus Kate’s husband is acting suspiciously. While she travels around Europe, looking for answers, she’s increasingly worried that her past is finally catching up with her. As Kate digs, and uncovers the secrets of the people who surround her, she finds herself buried in layers of deceit so thick they threaten her family, her marriage, and her life.

Praise for THE EXPATS

“I often thought I was reading early works of Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, and Robert Ludlum. Smart, clever suspense, skillfully plotted — The Expats is a lot of fun to read.” — JOHN GRISHAM

“Smartly executed . . . Pavone is full of sharp insights into the parallels between political espionage and marital duplicity . . .  Thoroughly captivating .” — NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“ Bristling with suspense and elegantly crafted , The Expats introduces a compelling and powerful female protagonist you won’t soon forget. Well done!” — PATRICIA CORNWELL

“ Impossible to put down . . . Pavone invokes memories of the great writers of spy fiction of the past, and he has the chops to be mentioned with the best of them.” — ASSOCIATED PRESS

“ Bombshell-a-minute . . . Pavone creates a fascinating, complicated hero.” — ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Expertly and intricately plotted, with a story spiraling into disaster and a satisfyingly huge amount of double-crossing . . . An impressively assured entry to the thriller scene.” — THE GUARDIAN   (London)

“ Riveting . One of the most accomplished debuts of recent years: not just a worthy addition to the literature of espionage and betrayal, but a fine portrait of a marriage disintegrating under the pressure of secrets and lies.” — JOHN CONNOLLY

“ Sly . . . Pavone strengthens this book with a string of head-spinning revelations in its last pages . . . The tireless scheming of all four principals truly exceeds all sane expectations.” —J ANET MASLIN,  NEW YORK TIMES

“ A blast . . . a fantastic tale with action that spans the globe.” — DALLAS MORNING NEWS

“A meticulously plotted, psychologically complex spy thriller . . . The sheer amount of bombshell plot twists are nothing short of extraordinary, but it’s Pavone’s portrayal of Kate and her quest to find meaning in her charade of an existence that makes this book such a powerful read .” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY   starred review

“A gripping spy drama and an artful study of the sometimes cat-and-mouse game of marriage.” — FAMILY CIRCLE

“ The Expats has got to be one of the best-written spy thrillers I’ve ever read . It captures in wonderful detail the texture of expatriate living while delivering a riveting story of great-game deceptions wrapped inside the smaller deceptions of marriage. At moments horrifying, hilarious, and very wise, The Expats has given Chris Pavone a permanent place on my short list of must-read authors.” — OLEN STEINHAUER

“A stunningly assured first novel . . . The juxtaposition of marital deceptions and espionage is brilliantly employed.” — BOOKLIST   starred review

“A truly riveting , corkscrewing plot of espionage and intrigue that raises questions of trust, loyalty, destiny, and justice. I devoured this book in one sitting, and finished it bedazzled in the ancient boulevards of modern Europe, wanting more.”— NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

“ Brilliant , insanely clever, and delectably readable.” — LIBRARY JOURNAL   starred review

“ The Expats is a gem . Clever, suspenseful with a jet fueled story that rockets from one corner of the globe to another, it is never less than a thrill a minute. But what I liked best about Mr. Pavone’s novel was his wonderful evocations of the far-flung locales. I read the book with a bag packed and plane ticket in my hand! An absolute winner!” — CHRISTOPHER REICH

“ Superb . . .  An engineering marvel.” — RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH

“Hard to put down . . . as much a novel about a woman trying to balance a job, a husband and kids as it is a spy thriller.” — SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN

“A thoroughly enjoyable thriller . . . Pavone masterfully layers all the action and deceit, the head games and plot twists, keeping the reader guessing.” — SUSPENSE

“Spy stories need to budge over to make space for Kate Moore—mother, wife, expat and ex-CIA operative. I loved her.” — ROSAMUND LUPTON

“ Refreshingly origina l . . . Part Ludlum in the pacing, part Le Carré in the complexity of story and character, but mostly Chris Pavone . . . You appreciate Pavone for crafting a thriller so good that you wonder what other ideas he has up his cloak, right alongside the obligatory dagger.” — NEWARK STAR-LEDGER

“In his debut novel, author Chris Pavone is firing on all cylinders. He slowly builds tension and methodically crafts a story with an end game that’s so elaborately executed, readers will shake their heads in awe and disbelief . . . the plot twists come fast and furious with the action building to a spectacular climax.” — KING FEATURES

“An impressive thriller by first-time novelist Pavone, with almost more double-crosses than a body can stand . . . A thoroughly competent and enjoyable thriller with unanticipated twists that will keep readers guessing till the end.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS  starred review

“One of the finest debut novels this readers has come upon in a long time . . . turn off the phone. Lock the door. You won’t want to be interrupted when this novel really heats up.” — HUDSON VALLEY NEWS

Chris Pavone. Crown, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-0-307-95635-4

Reviewed on: 01/02/2012

Genre: Fiction

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Amazon Prime Video's Expats Ending & Spoilers from the Book, Explained

Amazon Prime Video's Expats is set to end differently from its source material in Janice Y.K. Lee's book, The Expatriates . 

Expats had a similar premise as The Expatriates where a case of a missing boy drastically affected the lives of three women. 

Despite the core similarity, considerable changes to the show's narrative could drastically alter its ending. 

Expats: How the Series Differs from the Book

One of the biggest differences between Expats and Janice Y.K. Lee's book is the setting where Gus (Connor James) went missing.

In the series, the boy got lost in the busy streets of Mong Kok in Hong Kong while he disappeared in a crowded area in Seoul, Korea in the book. 

Margaret even stayed behind for weeks in Seoul in the book while her family went back to Hong Kong. 

In Expats , Nicole Kidman's Margaret first met Mercy (Ji-young Yoo) on a private yacht while The Expatriates revealed that the pair were introduced through a mutual friend. 

The book also noted that Mercy had been looking over Margaret's kids several times before Gus went missing (In the series, the kid disappeared during Mercy's first stint as a nanny). 

Expats Episode 1 established Mercy and David's (Jack Huston) affair right off the bat and the next installments further dove into their relationship by taking a deep look at it. However, in the book, the pair only hooked up and there was no deeper connection. 

[ Expats: Do They Find Gus? Here's What Happened In the Book ]

Here’s How Expats Could End

Janice Y.K. Lee's book The Expatriates ended with a lot of twists and turns and could hint at where the Prime Video streaming series based upon it is going. 

Gus (who is named G in the book) was never found in the book, and his disappearance served as the anchor of Margaret, Mercy, and Hilary's story. 

Margaret continued to grieve her missing son and Hilary's plan of adopting a boy named Julian was disrupted after David confessed that he impregnated Mercy. 

The book's biggest focal point centered around Mercy, with the ending hammering down how crucial she is to the overarching story. 

The pregnancy led to her reconciliation with Margaret while it also helped Hilary move on by showing support to Mercy and the newborn child at the end. 

Some argued that Margaret and Hilary's support was shocking, but others pointed out that it was the book's way of showing that motherhood can change everything, acting as a fresh start for the main trio involved. 

Expats Episode 4's cliffhanger ending hinted at the expected trajectory of the show's ending. 

At the end of the installment, it was revealed that Mercy was pregnant and the body that the Shenzen Police Department found was not Gus. 

The fact that Clarke broke down even though the body was not Gus suggested that seeing a young boy dead was too much for him and it could hint that he had already given up to search for him. 

As for Margaret, though, her smile in the end teased that she would not stop clinging to the hope of seeing Gus again. 

Episode 5 could focus on Margaret's final quest to search for her son before ultimately giving up similar to how the book left the boy's fate unresolved. 

Mercy's pregnancy would then slowly take over the final two installments. 

The character could grapple with the idea of abortion or she could come to terms with having a child that could lead to her coming clean with Hilary over her affair with David. 

Mercy could also finally overcome the guilt and pain from Gus' disappearance which would lead to her seeking amends with Margaret. 

The pair could reconcile, with Margaret realizing that nobody (not even Mercy) wanted Gus to disappear and it was an accident. 

Sometimes, the only way to move forward is to accept the things that we can't control.  

The first four episodes of Expats are streaming on Prime Video. 

Check out Expat's remaining release schedule here !

Read more about Expats below:

Full Cast of Expats - Every Main Actor & Character In the Series (Photos)

Expats: Who Is Jenny? Margaret Connection Explained

Who Is Bodhi del Rosario? 5 Things to Know About Expats Star

Who Is Tiana Gowen? 5 Things to Know About Expats Actress

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BKMT READING GUIDES

The Expats: A Novel by Chris Pavone

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER EDGAR AWARD WINNER  *  ANTHONY AWARD WINNER BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE ACCIDENT Can we ever escape our secrets? In the cobblestoned streets of Luxembourg, Kate Moore's days are filled with playdates and coffee mornings, her weekends spent in Paris and skiing in the ...

Introduction

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER EDGAR AWARD WINNER  *  ANTHONY AWARD WINNER BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE ACCIDENT Can we ever escape our secrets? In the cobblestoned streets of Luxembourg, Kate Moore's days are filled with playdates and coffee mornings, her weekends spent in Paris and skiing in the Alps. But Kate is also guarding a tremendous, life-defining secret—one that's become so unbearable that it begins to unravel her newly established expat life. She suspects that another American couple are not who they claim to be; her husband is acting suspiciously; and as she travels around Europe, she finds herself looking over her shoulder, increasingly terrified that her own past is catching up with her. As Kate begins to dig, to uncover the secrets of the people around her, she finds herself buried in layers of deceit so thick they threaten her family, her marriage, and her life.       Stylish and sophisticated, fiercely intelligent, and expertly crafted, The Expats proves Chris Pavone to be a writer of tremendous talent. Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content

Editorial Review

A reader’s guide for the expats , a novel.

By Chris Pavone

In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal important aspects of the plot of this novel. If you have not finished reading The Expats , we respectfully suggest that you wait before reviewing this guide.

Hailed by Patricia Cornwell as “bristling with suspense” and praised by John Grisham as reminiscent of early novels by Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, and Robert Ludlum, The Expats garnered coast-to-coast acclaim, marking the debut of an unforgettable new voice in American fiction.

An international thriller, The Expats is the story of a seemingly ordinary working mom, Kate Moore, whose husband, Dexter, is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg—a move that will unravel everything they believed about each other. Kate and Dexter have struggled to make ends meet, so they jump at the chance to start a new life abroad with the promise of rich rewards. But Kate has been leading a double life, and leaving America forces her to abandon her dangerous but heroic job. She soon discovers that it will be harder than she thought to shed her past, especially while coping with the weight of an unbearable secret. Dexter seems to be keeping secrets of his own, working long hours for a banking client whose name he can’t reveal. When another American couple befriends them, Kate begins to peel back the layers of deception that surround her, revealing a heart-stopping con that threatens her family, her marriage, and her life.

Sophisticated and expertly crafted, The Expats is set in some of Europe’s most enchanting locales, and races toward a provocative, startling conclusion. We hope this guide will enhance your experience of the pulse-pounding journey.

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. How does Kate’s sense of self shift throughout the novel? In the end, how does she reconcile the roles of wife, mom, and adrenaline-seeking agent?

2. In chapter ten, on page ninety-three, Kate thinks about crossing an unspoken line that exists in many marriages: “You know the lines are there, you feel them: the things you don’t discuss. . . . You go about your business, as far away from these lines as possible, pretending they’re not there.” To what degree did Kate and Dexter deceive themselves, as much as they deceived each other? Is complete honesty realistic for most married couples?

3. After working hard to keep her own career a secret from Dexter, why is it hard for Kate to accept his secrecy about his job? Was she setting a double standard or just responding to her well-honed instincts?

4. What were your initial theories about Julia and Bill, and the “Today” scenes?

5. Kate was well suited to her job when she led a solitary life. What did the CIA give her in lieu of love? As she realizes that Dexter and her family are all she has, how does her understanding of love change?

6. What is Hayden’s role in Kate’s life? Do you have a Hayden to rely on?

7. How do Kate and Dexter feel about the power of breadwinners in a marriage? What does their story say about resenting a spouse who doesn’t seem to be contributing (Dexter in America) versus resenting a spouse who seems to be a workaholic (Dexter in Luxembourg)? In the end, which of the novel’s characters prove to be the most materialistic?

8. Kate is haunted by the Torres episode. How did this continue to define her decision making and actions years later? If you were ever in a situation like this, how far would you go to protect your family?

9. Dexter often cites human gullibility as a weakness in I.T. security. Discuss the characters who let their guard down for love, vanity, sex, wealth, or other lures. What ultimately makes Dexter gullible? Does his gullibility make him blameless?

10. As the plot began to unfold, which revelations surprised you the most? What truth was buried beneath the layers of deception?

11. The Expats delivers a highly realistic portrayal of female agents, motherhood, and strong women who outsmart men. What is the effect of knowing that the book was written by a man?

12. Does it matter that the Colonel was bloodthirsty? Do the ends justify the means?

13. What does the novel say about trust and how it is earned? What do Kate and Dexter discover about the strength of their trust for each other?

14. Discuss the life of expatriates in general—a role the author experienced when his wife accepted a job in Luxembourg. If you were to live abroad, where would you want to set up housekeeping? How do expats balance the fact that they’re foreigners with the need to feel at home? Would you enjoy close-knit communities of expat spouses, or would the lack of privacy be hard to handle?

Discussion Questions

Notes from the author to the bookclub, book club recommendations.

Recommended to book clubs by 4 of 6 members.

Member Reviews

enjoyed this book!

I love to travel, and reading The Expats was fun because of the foreign locales and international intrigue.

nooooo. others liked it.

I'd rate it between 3-4 stars. I liked the book but not quite as much as I thought I would. I never really bought into Kate, as ex-CIA. Lots of twists and turns, with some of them, I have to say, unconvincing.... (read more)

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Nicole Kidman leads an ensemble of privileged, disconnected American 'Expats'

Linda Holmes

Margaret (Nicole Kidman) is an expat American living in Hong Kong, grieving as a mother and a wife. Prime Video hide caption

Margaret (Nicole Kidman) is an expat American living in Hong Kong, grieving as a mother and a wife.

Nicole Kidman has done a lot of different things in film: she's been a horny schemer in Malice , a strong-willed young Irish immigrant in Far and Away , she was even Virginia Woolf in The Hours . But in television, she specializes in women who are rich and haunted. Haunted by a nightmarish marriage in Big Little Lies , haunted by the possibility that her husband is a murderer in The Undoing , and now haunted by a tragedy in Expats , the splashy Amazon series adapted from Janice Y.K. Lee's 2016 novel The Expatriates , about three American women who are not from Hong Kong, but live there.

Kidman plays Margaret, a landscape architect. When we meet her, Margaret seems to be in a fog, barely engaged with her son and daughter, or with her husband, Clarke (Brian Tee). Clarke's job is the reason the family has come from New York to Hong Kong, and at the opening of the series, he's secretly seeking comfort in a church because something bad has happened. When an innocent question about a child named "Gus" causes Margaret to flee a room, the nature of that something bad begins to emerge.

Hilary (Sarayu Blue) lives in the same fancy building as Margaret, and it's clear they've been friends, although now, there is tension between them. Margaret has hurt Hilary somehow, and Hilary is finding it difficult to reconcile. Hilary and her husband, David (Jack Huston), have been trying to have a baby around the edges of her busy professional life and his questionable trustworthiness. Their marriage is in trouble, in both ways Hilary knows about and ways she doesn't, yet.

Mercy (Ji-young Yoo) is a young woman working catering jobs who not infrequently finds herself explaining to people she meets that she isn't local, and isn't Korean but Korean American, and doesn't speak Cantonese. She provides a voiceover prologue to the series that makes it clear that she feels very guilty about something, and that she's having trouble moving on from it.

Production (sour) notes

At this point, it's worth taking a moment to note the lengthy and sometimes stormy history of this production. The Expatriates was published in 2016, and news that Nicole Kidman's production company had acquired the rights emerged in early 2017 — just before the premiere of Big Little Lies on HBO. The final major piece of the Expats puzzle slid into place in late December 2019, when Lulu Wang, just months after the release of her film The Farewell , came on board to direct, write and executive produce "multiple episodes."

During filming in 2021, Kidman and several crew members got an exemption allowing them to avoid the COVID quarantine rules that applied to everyone else upon arrival in Hong Kong. As The New York Times reported at the time, there was anger not only among the city's residents, but in its legislature . It was a bitter pill, it seems, that this production about rich outsiders who paid little attention to the lives of ordinary people in Hong Kong was being given a blessing to hand-wave regulations meant to protect those same ordinary people.

Lulu Wang (center) directs Ji-young Yoo and Nicole Kidman as Mercy and Margaret. Glen Wilson/Prime Video hide caption

Lulu Wang (center) directs Ji-young Yoo and Nicole Kidman as Mercy and Margaret.

Perhaps most important, filming was taking place — and airing is taking place — during a dangerous and painful time in Hong Kong's history. (It's a massive story defying a quick summary, but one recent update came from NPR's Emily Feng in December. The headline: "Beijing tightens its political grip on Hong Kong.") In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Wang talked about the fact that the show "interrogates privilege" and described how the show was shot during the pandemic. She did not, however, say much about filming and airing a show largely about oblivious rich people when this is the political backdrop.

Of course, given past reporting on how censorship has affected Amazon's content decisions in India , growing censorship laws in Hong Kong , and China's treatment of disfavored speech and groups (again, here's Emily Feng ), it's hard to believe Wang and the rest of the writers had anything like a free hand in dealing with politics while they shot in Hong Kong. And nobody seems eager to disclose what the limitations might have been.

If you can't say anything important, should you say nothing at all?

What there is of an effort to address the fraught politics of contemporary Hong Kong comes in the fifth episode, "Central." A double-length installment, it switches the focus to a set of characters we've never or rarely spent time with before: a couple of Hong Kong students, a rich Hong Kong woman who's trying to find a new "helper" for her house, and the two "helpers" who work for Margaret and Hilary's families. Essie (Ruby Ruiz) and Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla) are both Filipina, so they too are far from home, but their circumstances are very different from the ones Margaret and Hilary face. Over the course of one long night that includes a power outage, protests swell ... and then they rather quietly subside. Someone is arrested and it's worrying, but he's unharmed.

The series only occasionally takes a wider view of the city and its population, but the focus unfortunately remains too narrowly focused on a particular kind of expat struggle. Prime Video hide caption

The series only occasionally takes a wider view of the city and its population, but the focus unfortunately remains too narrowly focused on a particular kind of expat struggle.

Maybe it's better than nothing that Expats acknowledges the existence of the strife in Hong Kong, even if it does so very nonspecifically, focusing on the broader notion that there are protests and there is disruption, rather than saying much about what the protests are about. (Again, it's hard not to wonder whether a fairly dispassionate presentation of protests as a historical fact devoid of detail was a freely made choice.) But this episode feels attached to the series like a rabbit's foot to a keychain, more for the blessings it's supposed to bring than for its function. So, maybe it's not better than nothing. Maybe doubling down on the degree to which Hilary and Margaret, in particular, are ignoring the city under their feet would have made more sense.

Some of the early publicity around this series suggested that it was a satire. The book may well be a satire, but this series is not a satire. Margaret and Hilary are selfish, and the existence of the expats we meet implicates them in a variety of destructive systems as they throw parties and talk only to each other, enjoying the parts of life in Hong Kong that are pleasurable and avoiding the parts that are not. But mostly, Hilary and Margaret are presented as sympathetic, as our protagonists, guilty of excess but little culpability for their circumstances, much like the women in Big Little Lies . Kidman's gift for portraying the grief that Margaret tries to bury under a layer of ice isn't witty, quite; it's her pain that dominates.

The writing of the series cannot seem to lower its pH and satirize these women, or even to let go of any claim they might have to victimhood. Margaret's passing interest in news reports about crackdowns on protests is distasteful, but it's not connected to her story; it's just a flaw here, like a short temper. In individual moments, our three women — Hilary and Margaret at least — may be presented as insensitive, but that doesn't make the series an incisive critique of them. Sour milk does not satirize the dairy industry just because it tastes bad.

Mercy is a different story. Mercy is interesting, because while she's also an expat, she's quite a different kind. Yoo imbues her with complex, guilt-ridden believability, making her an outwardly confident young woman with an thick hide that she hobbles off to repair after something hurts her. It's the strongest performance in the series, and it's the one that holds up best under the strain of the show's uncertain footing.

Marriage, Privilege, Redux?

David (Jack Huston) and Hilary (Sarayu Blue) navigate a messy marriage. Jupiter Wong/Prime Video hide caption

David (Jack Huston) and Hilary (Sarayu Blue) navigate a messy marriage.

The most perplexing thing about Expats is that its story has almost nothing to do with the fact that these women are expats. You could pack up this series and fly it to Manhattan, tell the same core stories about these three women (Margaret's loss, Mercy's guilt, Hilary's marriage), and change ... almost nothing. In fact, you could ship it to Monterey to be the third season of Big Little Lies , and it would have a lot in common with the other seasons (tragedy, guilt, marriage).

Perhaps in an effort to avoid saying the wrong thing about expats, or about Hong Kong, Expats winds up saying nothing about those things at all. The insularity of a woman living abroad who doesn't speak the local language is a perhaps ironic mirror of the insularity of a story that doesn't take much notice of its setting other than as scenery.

There was probably a different vision for this show at some point. A vision of it as glamorous and gorgeous and darkly funny (darkly funny like The Farewell was), making affluent people who are expats or even just tourists squirm in recognition. But along the way, it became something far less interesting than that: a good-looking rich-people melodrama. Moreover, it's a project that invites you, right from its title, to be bewildered by its indifference to life in Hong Kong. It's like showing up at a billionaire's house and taking 100 pictures of the koi pond from every angle, while the house is burning down behind you. There's nothing wrong with the photos you've taken, but there is the feeling you could have captured something far more worthy of your attention by just turning your head.

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255bookreview.com

Capsule book reviews in 255 characters or fewer. Ish. A reading diary (1st Jan 2019 onwards) by Eamonn Griffin.

the expats book review

"The Expats" by Chris Pavone is a thrilling and suspenseful novel that follows the story of Kate Moore, a former CIA operative who moves to Luxembourg with her husband and two children. As Kate tries to settle into her new life as an expat, she quickly becomes entangled in a web of deceit and danger.

Pavone's writing is sharp and engaging, keeping readers on the edge of their seats as they try to unravel the mysteries surrounding Kate and her past. The story is full of twists and turns, with plenty of surprises along the way. The characters are well-developed and complex, adding depth to the plot and keeping the reader invested in their fates.

Overall, "The Expats" is a gripping and well-crafted thriller that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end. Fans of espionage and suspense novels will not be disappointed with this riveting read.

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10 Biggest Details Amazon's Expats Show Leaves Out From The Book

Warning! SPOILERS about Expats episode 6 and The Expatriates ahead.

• Expats exclude book details to focus on central characters, changing their stories and neglecting others.
• Changes in Expats root the drama in real history, spotlight protests and add new storylines.
• Expats miss key events & characters from the book, like Margaret's expat acquaintances, Daisy's problematic websites, & Hilary's adoptee Julian.

Amazon Prime Video's Expats did an exemplary job of bringing to the screen the world of Janice Y. K. Lee's The Expatriates , but some details, stories and moments didn't end up being part of the adaptation. The drama aptly depicted how central Margaret, Mercy and Hilary's stories were to the book, focusing on their journeys out of the limbo Gus's disappearance put Margaret and Mercy in, and Hilary's marriage problems led Hilary to. While central key events from the book appear almost identical in Expats , the show still changed much from the original story, forgetting some characters or developments altogether.

Most of the Expats changes to the book story made the Amazon drama more rooted in real history, such as Mercy's romantic interest Charly's changes leading to a spotlight on truly existing protests in history. Expats ' focus on Essie and Puri made the drama better, showing the domestic workers' perspectives and feelings, something The Expatriates couldn't do with only Margaret, Mercy and Hilary having POVs in the book. While the new storylines gave a definite identity to the show separate from the books, the changes also made some book characters and developments never see the light of day in Expats .

10 Biggest Unanswered Questions & Mysteries After Amazon's Expats

Margaret's expat acquaintances were never a part of expats, attending events with them created a sort of community, although they were often obtrusive.

Clarke’s birthday party was one of the few instances where fellow expats were seen with the Woos in Expats , but the book told a different story. The Expatriates showed Margaret’s solitude differently from Expats , as in the book Margaret was often lonely but rarely alone , with all the charity lunches and mom meetings at Daisy’s school taking most of her day. Margaret’s loneliness in her tragedy was palpable in Expats , but the drama never included other expats that weren’t Hilary or Mercy, greatly reducing the events Margaret attended and what was supposed to be her support system away from home.

Mercy's Mother's Trip To Hong Kong Turned Into A Move Early In The Expatriates

She decided to live with mercy as she knew she was pregnant, while expats treats her visit as a trip.

Expats introducing Mercy’s parents as separated greatly impacted the storyline involving Mercy’s mother visiting Hong Kong, as her mother was only shown as visiting in Expats episode 6, without any mention of a new life for her there, even after they talked. However, The Expatriates transformed Mercy’s mother’s trip into a permanent stay very early in the story , because of her leaving Mercy’s father and her heart-to-heart with Mercy revealing all the secrets Mercy was keeping about Gus’s disappearance and her pregnancy, making her soon decide she would have stayed with her daughter in Hong Kong to help her.

The Class Divisions Among The Locals Weren't Highlighted In The Show

The reaction of hilary's driver, sam, prompted such a reflection in the expatriates.

Hilary’s big journey in The Expatriates wasn’t one of freedom from self-imposed cages like in the series, but one of motherhood. Her prospective adoptee Julian being half-Indian and half-Chinese however prompted an insight into how the locals would deem differences important among themselves. Indeed, Hilary believed their driver Sam, who was Indian, would have been happy to see Julian visit. However, Sam never warmed up to Julian, and Hilary only later realized it was because Sam saw Julian as a street child beneath him , who was a man with a family. Julian’s absence from Expats thus made these reflections impossible.

Daisy Never Showed Problematic Websites To Her Classmates In Expats

Instead, she fixated on the disappearance of a plane over the ocean in the show.

Gus’s disappearance hit Philip and Daisy differently in Expats , and if Philip focused on Jesus, Daisy fixated on the news of a plane disappearing over an ocean. However, The Expatriates showed Daisy’s distress after losing her younger brother via other problematic interests. In the book, the mother of one of Daisy’s classmates needed to talk with Margaret because Daisy had shown her daughter self-harm and child-loss websites , and she wanted to rein in Margaret to “ have someone talk to ” Daisy. Due to the other expats not having Margaret, Mercy or Hilary’s same prominence, this detail never became part of Expats .

Amazon's Expats Show Just Made 1 Book Story Much Darker For Nicole Kidman's Character

Hilary's secret expat blog fixation was never in the show, her interest in it eventually led her to discover they talked viciously about her on it.

Hilary’s story changing completely in Expats also made another impactful detail from The Expatriates disappearing from the series. When Hilary didn’t want to interact with fellow expats but still wanted to know what was said about her community, she frenetically checked blogs about what was happening within the expat community in Hong Kong in secret. One of her deep dives led Hilary to read about another expat harshly judging her arrangement with Julian as she was still undecided about whether to adopt him. Despite the website’s fellow users not knowing who she was, Hilary was profoundly unsettled by the discovery.

The Expatriates Showed A Pattern Of Mercy's Inattention Unlike Expats

Margaret worried about mercy's focus more than once before g's disappearance in the book.

Gus’s disappearance was the product of a split-second lapse in Expats , but the events leading up to it in The Expatriates were much more damaging for Mercy. Margaret had known her for some time in the book before bringing her on a Seoul family trip to help her with the children. However, Margaret noticed Mercy’s inattention multiple times before Gus’s disappearance, reprimanding her about leaving the children alone with Daisy overseeing them so that she could go out at night or for a swim in the early morning, thus presenting a pattern of Mercy’s negligence when caring for Margaret’s children.

Mercy's Mother Apologized After They Began Living Together In The Book

Mercy & her mother's heart-to-heart included an actual apology in the book, not just staunch support.

Expats episode 6’s ending introduced Mercy’s mother late in the story, and their conflictual relationship didn’t necessarily help Mercy feel supported once they met at the airport and her mother noticed she was pregnant. Mercy also broke down before being embraced and eventually supported by her mother in Expats . However, The Expatriates included a beautiful moment between them, where Mercy’s mother apologized for making Mercy feel as if she deserved her bad luck and reminded her that Mercy could make her own luck, as she did by leaving Mercy’s father and moving to her new life in Hong Kong.

Expats Excluded All The Trips Margaret, Her Family & Hilary Took

The trips were fundamental to their stories in the book but would have hurt the show's focus.

Margaret, Mercy and Hilary’s stories in Expats were indissolubly linked to their setting, Hong Kong. That wasn’t always the case in The Expatriates , where the expats’ lavish lifestyle was often shown through their frequent international trips . Margaret and Hilary make many of them, with Gus’s disappearance even happening during one, but their point in the book was also to show a change in their approach.

Indeed, if Hilary’s trip with her mother reconnected them, Margaret’s family trip one year after the tragedy made her feel as detached from her family as possible. Their trips in the book were instrumental in showing both how the expats lived on another, more privileged planet compared to other characters and Hilary and Margaret’s shift in perspective . However, trips couldn’t have worked with the way Expats almost made Hong Kong the fourth protagonist after Margaret, Mercy and Hilary.

Expats Episode 5's Unexpected Switch Fixes A Book Problem (At The Expense Of 2 Major Characters)

Hilary's adoptee julian is completely canceled from the show, hilary's journeys in the expatriates and the show are opposite.

Hilary’s journey of acceptance in Expats centered around living the way she wanted after her divorce, child-free and without following her family’s counterproductive rules. Her journey in The Expatriates was instead the opposite, as she gained an adopted child at the end of it, despite still ending up without a husband. Julian was a part of Hilary’s story from the beginning, and Hilary adopting him was the only possible outcome for her in the book's end . Still, with Hilary’s story not involving motherhood in Expats , the show necessarily had to cancel Julian and all he represented.

Margaret, Mercy & Hilary's Meetup Was Never Shown In Expats

Margaret & hilary visited mercy at the hospital after she delivered her daughter.

Although Expats still showed Margaret, Hilary and Mercy meeting up in the series’ ending, mending their relationships by finally talking honestly with each other, The Expatriates concluded their stories in a entirely different way. With their stories all involving motherhood in the book, Margaret and Hilary actually continued to keep in touch with Mercy, even going to visit her at the hospital right after she gave birth to her daughter . Expats ’ changes wouldn’t have made such an ending make sense, but it seamlessly worked for The Expatriates , as it enshrined forgiveness and a fresh start in all the protagonists’ stories.

Cast Flora Chan, Bonde Sham, Ji-young Yoo, Brian Tee, Jack Huston, Sarayu Blue, Nicole Kidman

Release Date January 26, 2024

Genres Drama

Writers Janice Y. K. Lee, Lulu Wang

Directors Lulu Wang

Creator(s) Janice Y. K. Lee, Lulu Wang

Rating TV-MA

Where To Watch Prime Video

• Australia edition
• Europe edition
• International edition

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley review – a seriously fun sci-fi romcom

A bureaucrat in near-future London finds love with a Victorian Arctic explorer in a thrilling debut that takes a deep dive into human morality

F or a book to be good – really good, keep it on your shelf for ever good – it has to be two things: fun and a stretch . You have to need to know what happens next; and you have to feel like a bigger or better version of yourself at the end. Airport thrillers are almost always fun; much contemporary autofiction is just a stretch, largely because it’s very hard for a book in which not much happens to be a page-turner. What a thrill, then, to come to Kaliane Bradley’s debut, The Ministry of Time, a novel where things happen, lots of them, and all of them are exciting to read about and interesting to think about.

Bradley’s book is also serious, it must be said – or, at least, covers serious subjects. The British empire, murder, government corruption, the refugee crisis, climate change, the Cambodian genocide, Auschwitz, 9/11 and the fallibility of the human moral compass all fall squarely within Bradley’s remit. Fortunately, however, these vast themes are handled deftly and in deference to character and plot.

Billed as “speculative fiction”, it is perhaps more cheering to think of it as 50% sci-fi thriller, and 50% romcom. The Ministry of Time is chiefly a love story between a disaffected civil servant working in a near-future London, and Commander Graham Gore, first lieutenant of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to the Arctic. Gore, last seen grimly walking across the ice in 1847, has been retrieved from the jaws of death by a 21st-century government hellbent on testing the limits of time travel.

Gore is one of their “expats”: people brought through time and subjected not just to a barrage of tests but the tumult of the 21st century (traffic lights, acknowledging the atrocities of the British empire, Instagram). The expats have some problems with “hereness and thereness”: they don’t register, necessarily, on an MRI scan or an airport scanner. What is a person? What is time? How can the answers to these questions further our geopolitical interests?

Each expat has been assigned a “bridge”: part companion, part zookeeper, part researcher. The bridges share their homes, their lives – and perhaps more – but must file complete reports on every aspect of their new “friend” to an increasingly sinister HQ. Ursula K Le Guin wrote that the job of sci-fi was “to extrapolate imaginatively from current trends and events to a near-future that’s half prediction, half satire”. It is impossible to read The Ministry of Time and not feel that we are, in fact, mere years from “nose-bleeder” heatwaves, microchipped refugees and a government at war with itself.

One test of good sci-fi is how quickly the central premise, however fantastic, becomes so obviously true to both character and reader that the plot is permitted to move itself without any further conscious suspension of disbelief. The space blasters, or whatever, must feel as real as the people; and the people must not be left behind in the author’s quest to accurately describe ( to quote Raymond Chandler ) the poltexes and disintegrators and secondary timejectors. The Ministry of Time needs no such ritzy shortcuts: when the blue lights and lasers emerge, we have earned them.

The test of a good romance novel is, in some ways, the same. Cliche is a feature, not a bug; readers expect a certain set of beats, played to a certain rhythm. Girl meets boy; boy and girl fall in love over one hot summer; complications (in this case, guns, governments and an age gap of 200 years) ensue. The couple must kiss; and, while a happy ending is not mandatory (luckily for Bradley), there must be some sense of hope.

This is – astonishingly – a hopeful book. Much as our narrator would like us to believe chiefly in her failures, ultimately she exists around them and through them as a person in her own right. A nameless bureaucrat, through the course of the novel she (as she puts it of Gore) “fills out with attributes like a daguerreotype developing”. This is our hope, then, in the novel as in life: that people should become more than they thought they were. Life is worth living; and love is worth fighting for; and our characters – hereness and thereness notwithstanding – can and must do it. Won’t they? Would you? These are the big questions, and Bradley smuggles them in, concealed amid a breakneck plot just as the time outlaws hide among suburban London streets.

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For, despite its vast scope, The Ministry of Time reads like a novel that was written for pleasure. The acknowledgments reveal that the story began life as a joke for a handful of friends – and while it is not always true that a joy to write is a joy to read, this is the kind of summer romp that also sparks real thought. While Bradley’s writing can veer towards the glib, go with it: give in to the tide of this book, and let it pull you along. It’s very smart; it’s very silly; and the obvious fun never obscures completely the sheer, gorgeous, wild stretch of her ideas.

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‘Expats’ Duo Nicole Kidman And Lulu Wang On The Emotional Toll Of Bringing Novel To Life

The stars and writer-director of the Prime Video limited series Expats sat down Sunday at the Deadline Studio at Prime Experience. Based on Janice Y.K. Lee’s bestselling novel of the same name, Expats revolves around the lives of a group of expatriates in Hong Kong — more specifically, it’s story of three women from different backgrounds linked by a tragic event, grief, loss and complicated family issues.

Watch the conversation here, and scroll down for a photo gallery of the event.

Kidman, who has become as prolific a producer through her Blossom Films as she is an actor, also just received the prestigious AFI Lifetime Achievement Award over the weekend, something celebrated by all her Expats colleagues as we began our studio session with them on the sidelines of Amazon’s FYC event. As a producer, Kidman knew exactly the formula that makes for a compelling series.

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“I mean this was a labor of love and then when Lulu came in she was like, ‘I’m ready, but the way to do it is I need to be able to control the whole thing and know exactly what I will have, the agency and the ability to do that.’ And that’s what we do as a production company, hopefully, is to supply that support. And so a lot of it is just that, and then you cast incredible actors, and that’s it, the job’s done,” Kidman said, making it sound a lot easier than creating a show shot on this scale in Hong Kong.

For Kidman it is also a highly emotional role, playing a woman whose young son vanishes while under the watch of a babysitter, played by Yoo. She said it was Wang who determined the role she would play. “She said, ‘No, you’re Margaret. You will be Margaret.’ And that’s what I mean by you give the project over to the director and they shape it. … And it’s so much about a marriage that is under duress but is a good marriage and that was sort of the kernel for me in terms of the grief, because so much of this is when you see these marriages, a lot of them are destroyed, but this is a marriage that isn’t destroyed.

“Nicole and I started off, and as soon as you meet you know she’ll just go deep, and she said, ‘This is a show about women, it’s a show about grief, let me tell you about my own grief, let me tell you about my father,’ and we just talked, we talked about our own mothers, and it was a show by women, for women’,” Wang said about the experience of the six-episode series, one that offered a chance for diversity as well. “And that’s it, an opportunity I couldn’t turn down to have that kind of creative freedom to put who we wanted behind the camera as well as in front of the camera, to create an ecosystem and a process that was really healthy for the creatives. That’s why I said yes. In addition there was the incredible source material, the book by Janice Y.K. Lee, and the themes that come from the novel.”

Nicole Kidman

Michael Buckner for Deadline

Sarayu Blue

Ji-young Yoo

Jack Huston

Yoo, who plays Mercy, and Blue, who plays Hilary, explained the arcs of their characters and the way they became so interlinked, complications and all. Tee, who plays Clark, Margaret’s husband, and Huston, who plays David, husband to Hilary but also having an affair with Mercy, both explained the complexity of the key men in this story revolving around the three women.

Huston, grandson of legendary director John Huston, had worked with Wang on her first feature film but had a particularly challenging physical requirement put on him by his director for Expats . “That was our first conversation: ‘There’s two stipulations. One is you have to put on 30 pounds. The other one is you have to be fully naked.’ That is naked with 30 (extra) pounds on your body, and I was like ‘Well only for you, Lulu’,” he said, laughing.

For more Deadline Studio at Prime Experience content, click  here .

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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, review: An exquisite, wildly funny debut

No wonder this genre-defying novel has already been commissioned as a bbc series.

If you’re after a literary Timecop , you may want to look elsewhere. In this genre-defying and exquisitely written debut by Kaliane Bradley (already commissioned as a BBC series), time travel and government espionage merely form the backdrop to a deeply original love story and an examination of otherness, heritage, identity and the lingering tentacles of colonialism.

It is Britain in the near future. Our narrator, an unnamed British-Cambodian woman, has got herself a job as a “bridge” at a top-secret new government department. Time-travellers, euphemistically termed “expats” by officials, are being extracted from different historical eras and brought to modern-day London.

The purpose of this mission is murky. Are they scientific experiments? Historical refugees? (The ministry only selects people who would have died soon in their own era, so as not to interrupt the space-time continuum.) Sharing a house with their expats, the bridges must help them adjust to modern life.

Our narrator is paired with Commander Graham Gore, a real naval officer and polar explorer who went missing during the Franklin Expedition in 1848, in which British ships became trapped in Arctic ice.

Gore, a curly-haired and sometimes shy man who regards a menu “with exploratory interest”, is adaptable and also devastatingly attractive in a way that feels like an odd cross between Mr Darcy – earnest, formal, quietly emotional – and Ryan Gosling ’s character in the film Crazy Stupid Love – cheeky, curious, a hell of a laugh.

He finds he adores Spotify (though he suspects replaying songs infinitely is “disrespectful”), and learns to cook Cambodian food. He takes apart the toilet just to see how it all works. He types text messages with adorable effort. There is something endearingly child-like about his wonder at the world.

But he is also irrefutably a man of his time; he baulks at swearing and dating (he summarises the latter as “like trying on clothes for fit, except the clothes are people”).

Bradley never falls into the trap of making him anachronistic, and the narrator’s preternatural patience with his occasionally unacceptable views (colonial “victories”, for example) is one of the book’s great strengths. Bradley is always looking for common threads of humanity – curiosity, kindness, joie de vivre – without ever burdening them with ahistorical morality. The narrator’s own relationship with her past is complicated too. Her parents escaped from Pol Pot but she doesn’t want to be seen as “dragging a genocide around”.

My Family and Other Rock Stars by Tiffany Murray is an elegiac memoir

What, the book asks, makes a person? Innate personality traits? The country or time we’re from or in? To this end, Bradley also assembles a terrific cast of other expats: Margaret, the spirited, cinema-loving gay woman extracted from plague-ridden London , who takes on Tinder with her medieval vernacular. Arthur, a gentle poetry-lover and soldier who can’t quite wrap his head around no longer being shelled in the trenches.

The book is also wildly funny and banter lies at the heart of the slow-burn romance between Gore and “Cat” (as he affectionately nicknames her). She informs him he can’t smoke indoors in this era. “Send me back to the Arctic,” he quips. Meanwhile, Bradley lightly dispenses with the cumbersome metaphysics of time travel: “The moment you start thinking about the physics of it you are in a crock of shit.”

Bradley writes sentences so luxurious you want to swim in them: “What I was doing was squeezing my eyes shut and singing la la la at the gathering darkness, as if the gathering darkness cared that I couldn’t see it.” She does occasionally need reining in (does a long-awaited sex scene really need a “cumulonimbus” metaphor?), and I also found the second half of the book, where it gathered pace, less convincing than the first – at times it is so fiendishly and unexpectedly plotty, that I longed for the languorous yearning of the first act.

Still, this is extraordinary writing, with unforgettable characters and a spine-tingling love affair. It manages to be both a serious look at the weight of history, colonialism and migration, and an absolute riot. A true original.

Published by Sceptre on 16 May, £16.99

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Vietnam tore two families apart. This fast-paced narrative explores why.

In “Diplomats at War,” Charles Trueheart delves into the story of his father and godfather — diplomats and friends who parted ways after a fateful policy decision.

One afternoon in the summer of 2019, Rufus Phillips , 89, a Vietnam hand and legendary former CIA officer, was casting six decades back to recall how the quagmire had begun. We sat in a modest apartment on a low floor of a tall building in Northern Virginia, surrounded by art and books, bounty of his years in Asia.

“We faced more turning points in Vietnam than you could count, but that was a point of no return,” he said of the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his shadowy brother Ngo Dinh Nhu in a 1963 coup coyly blessed by the Kennedy administration. To Phillips, the toll of that moment was clear: U.S. officials, even the most enlightened ones who had come to Saigon in hopes of doing good, would never find a stable course to anything approximating democracy, let alone a military victory.

Phillips is among the Saigon staffers who play small but significant roles in Charles Trueheart’s book “ Diplomats at War .” The two men at the heart of the book — the diplomats of the title — are Frederick “Fritz” Nolting, John F. Kennedy’s ambassador in Vietnam from 1961 to 1963, and Nolting’s No. 2, William Trueheart. In the final months of the Diem regime, as the noose tightened, Nolting and Trueheart, Virginian gentlemen of the Foreign Service and friends since their graduate school days studying epistemology in Charlottesville, parted ways.

“Diplomats” reprises a drama first depicted 52 years ago in David Halberstam’s “The Best and the Brightest,” but what makes this telling so enthralling is that Trueheart is the author’s father and Nolting his godfather. The question of what caused the two men to fall out — was it a policy breach, a personal betrayal or both? — drives the son’s quest and the fast-paced narrative. For the rest of their lives, Nolting and the elder Trueheart exchanged nary a word. (Nolting died in 1989, Trueheart in 1992.) In Trueheart’s family, the rupture would become taboo — roped off by his father as “the business with Fritz.” To Nolting, it remained an unforgivable sin. And to the son and godson, on the cusp of adulthood, the break engendered a “lifetime of stewing about the whole thing.”

Trueheart the son, a former Paris bureau chief for The Washington Post and longtime director of the American Library in Paris, has written a “work of memory hiding inside a work of history” — a tricky endeavor. To be sure, moments of awkward ice-dancing arise: Trueheart père morphs from “William Trueheart” to “Bill” to “my father” and, only occasionally, “Daddy.” But the son has achieved something rare in the annals of diplomatic history, mining family letters, federal archives and oral history to craft a tale both riveting and revelatory, a brisk drama that toggles between Saigon and Washington to offer an inside tour of the secret diplomacy — the cajoling and conniving — as the coup fuse burned.

It was Nolting who in 1961 — when the Geneva Accords still restricted the number of U.S. military personnel to 685 — wrote his old friend encouraging him to “get some realism into the heads of some over-idealistic Americans who seem to think the Communists won’t swallow up an infant democracy tenderized a la Rousseau.” But from the first, Trueheart pushed the harder line and would eventually side with those back in Washington who had lost faith in the Diem regime.

Throughout it all, young Charlie is present, a preteen fixated on, in order of import: cars (the family Ford Fairlane; the Mercedes 220S, shipped in from London; the state cars, “flags flying”), expat would-be street gangs, Boy Scouts and judo lessons at the Cercle Sportif. Fifty years after the war, we are increasingly enlightened by an emerging literature that revisits the Vietnamese side. Not here. Charlie’s closest relationship with a Vietnamese person was with the family chauffeur. And yet, as witness and researcher, he has curiosity on his side.

In exploring what went wrong, the story centers on the fateful summer of 1963. Ambassador Nolting went on holiday. For six weeks, Trueheart ran the Embassy. The explosion that led to the friendship’s end — and in time, as Trueheart the son notes, “the demise of American prudence and clear thinking — came out of nowhere.” The Buddhists of South Vietnam staged an uprising, catching the Americans unaware. The regime cracked down, and the CIA, the State Department and the White House began to plot. Throughout it all, Trueheart, as the ambassador’s chargé d’affaires, made no effort to contact his absent boss. Nolting would forever insist he might have saved the day, had he been recalled.

Yet Nolting did himself no favors that summer, giving an interview to journalist Neil Sheehan in which he downplayed the monks’ complaints: “I have never seen any evidence of religious persecution.” The Buddhists sent a plea to JFK: “The Ambassador would probably want to be presented with nearly 6,000,000 corpses of Jews before being convinced of religious discrimination.” But the coup that followed was, indeed, an ugly affair: As Washington closed its eyes (“not stimulate, not thwart,” in Trueheart’s parsing of the CIA cables), the Ngo brothers imagined themselves gaining safe passage, only to end up “bound and gagged” by insurrectionist generals, “sprayed with machine gun bullets” and “stabbed for good measure.”

Trueheart expertly reprises the drama, but an undertow pervades. “I knew Bill Trueheart only as a son knows a father,” the author writes, “that is intimately, but not at all well.” We learn the contours — the father “worked seven days a week,” “he was more of a distant example” — but Bill Trueheart is felt more by his absence than his presence. Even years later, when the son asked for his father’s thoughts on the murders of the brothers Ngo, the reply seemed to him “rather bloodlessly analytical.”

In the end, it is not Nolting but the author’s father who stands as a cipher. “My father never spoke a meaningful word to me about the summer of 1963.” Author and reader wait to see and hear the fireworks of contretemps, but instead what we hear from the senior Trueheart, three times, is: “Mea culpa.” Trueheart’s son makes no excuses, leaving the record blank — “It would be so interesting to know in his own words what he was feeling” — and instead poses the essential questions: “I have to ask, here and throughout this tragic fracture: did these two close friends of twenty-five years never sit down together in the winter and spring of 1963 and speak frankly to one another? Air their doubts, test their analyses, explore their differences?” As it turns out, it is not the drama of father and son, but of matters of state, that takes on sharper, trenchant focus.

If Trueheart’s father remains remote, his mother, Phoebe, offers her son a proximate witness with an acerbic tongue and emotional intelligence. The diplomat’s wife, to be sure, played hostess. She oversaw seating charts and proffered cocktails at all hours, but as the screws tightened that summer, Phoebe also observed — and acted. We are grateful for the narrative ballast. “To look at me,” Phoebe wrote in a letter that summer, “I am the picture of calm and tranquility. Inside I am churned up. When I do sleep, I have horrible dreams of blood, soldiers, and little children torn apart. … The only time I sleep is when I’ve had lots to drink or taken Seconal.” In the rush to the coup, as the father recedes, or the record fades to black, we hear Phoebe tally the toll on her husband: “He is running on nerves.”

The coup, like all coups, did little to better the lives of the local populace. Rufus Phillips, who died in 2021, was one of the last Americans to see Diem alive. “Do you think there will be a coup?” Diem asked the American. “I looked him in the eye,” Phillips recounted. “I couldn’t lie to him. ‘I am afraid so, Mr. President.’ I felt like crying.” After Diem, there followed “a half-dozen nonviolent coups by fractious Vietnamese generals.” Above all, his removal ended hope for a settlement with Hanoi and, as Trueheart writes, “an off-ramp for the United States from the road to a wider war.” Nolting would remain bitter, and righteous, to the end. “The albatross of Diem’s murder,” he wrote years later, “still hangs heavy around our country’s neck, and especially around the neck of those who plotted his downfall.”

Andrew Meier is the author, most recently, of “Morgenthau: Power, Privilege, and the Rise of an American Dynasty” and is at work on a book about two friends — one American, one Vietnamese — caught in the crossfire of the Vietnam War’s secret counterintelligence battles.

Diplomats at War

Friendship and Betrayal on the Brink of the Vietnam Conflict

By Charles Trueheart

University of Virginia. 343 pp. $34.95

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Nursing is a privilege: how uae expat nurses devote their lives to serving the nation, it is only fitting to honour them for their contributions in improved health of people and communities.

Ashwani Kumar

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Published: Sun 12 May 2024, 10:08 AM

In the UAE, the vast majority of nurses are expatriates from different countries and cultures, working as one to deliver the highest standards of patient care.

Every year, nurses are being celebrated on the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. In this year's International Nurses Day, nurses from diverse backgrounds shared their experiences of serving the UAE.

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Annie Joy, an ambulatory care nurse, noted that in her 13-year career, including more than nine years at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, she has witnessed first-hand the impact nursing has on the health and well-being of the UAE population.

“Each day, as a nurse, I’ve had the privilege of being a part of a profession that goes beyond treating ailments, fostering wellness and resilience in individuals and communities alike," she said.

Annie Joy said, "nursing is a journey of lifelong discovery and fulfilment.Your compassion and dedication have the power to touch lives in ways you may never imagine. So, step forward with confidence, for the path you’ve chosen is one of purpose, compassion, and endless possibility."

Ability to shape lives

Craig Halpin, director of clinical operations at Capital Health Screening Centre, said that nursing isn’t just a career but a boundless journey of opportunity.

“Whether navigating the clinical intricacies or orchestrating operations, the horizons are limitless. Yet, amid the diversity of roles, what unites every nurse is our unwavering dedication to compassion, our innate capacity to care deeply, and, above all, the profound privilege of shaping lives. Whether you’re a novice stepping into the realm of nursing or a seasoned leader, our commitment remains – to make a positive impact on those we serve,” Halpin noted.

Dr Michelle Ann Gunn, who relocated from Australia to the Emirates in 2022, is determined to contribute to the UAE’s vision of creating a robust healthcare ecosystem.

“The UAE is at the forefront of redefining healthcare standards in the region, and nursing plays an integral role in achieving this vision,” said Dr Gunn, the group chief nursing officer for Burjeel Holdings.

Dr Gunn has more than 25 years of nursing experience and also served as the chief nursing officer at Al Dhafra Hospitals, managing numerous healthcare facilities and primary care clinics across the country.

“As a nursing leader, I am proud to work towards elevating the quality of care, developing the nursing workforce, and contributing to the country’s healthcare excellence,” Dr Gunn underlined.

Work-life balance

Elena Bordei, an assistant nurse manager at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi for more than 11 years, pointed out the significance of maintaining a professional-personal life balance.

“Balancing the demands of the emergency department in hospitals with a fulfilling personal life requires a commitment to continuous development. Over the 11 years of my career, I’ve learned the importance of mental resilience and work-life balance and how crucial it is for nurses to prioritise self-care amidst the intensity of our roles,” she said.

Highlighting the support for professional development at the hospital, she noted: “A holistic approach to development not only enriches our careers but also nurtures a sense of fulfilment in both our professional and personal lives.”

Sense of fulfilment

Juvy Almazan, outpatient department team lead at Healthpoint, said that nursing is a calling of dedication, sacrifice, and an unwavering commitment to serving others.

“Being a nurse is a journey filled with challenges, triumphs, and profound moments of connection. It is a profession where every day brings new experiences from comforting patients in their darkest hours to celebrating milestones of recovery. The life of a nurse is one of continuous learning, compassion, and resilience as we navigate the complexities of healthcare with empathy and skill. Despite the long hours and emotional demands, being a nurse offers incomparable rewards like a sense of purpose, fulfilment, and opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those you care for,” Juvy underlined.

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I lived in Cuba for 20 years. Moving back to the US has me questioning the meaning of 'home.'

• At 32, Conner Gorry left New York and moved to Havana for a job as a journalist.
• After living there for 20 years, she saw herself as an immigrant, rather than an expat.
• Since her return last year, re-learning how to live in the US has been difficult.

Whitening. Herbal. Charcoal. Color changing? I'm in the toothpaste aisle at Target, dumbfounded by a selection that runs several shelves long and as many high. After more than 20 years in Cuba , where Close-Up and La Perla were the only choices for most of that time, I'm overwhelmed by the number of options. If Target triggers paralysis, I shudder to think what terror Costco might elicit.

I was 32 when I left New York after the World Trade Center attacks. I was looking for a more humanistic and peaceful place to call home. A place where telling a good joke and checking in on older neighbors means more than what car you drive or the whiteness of your teeth. I was hankering for more community and less consumerism.

In early 2002, the door of opportunity swung open: I packed a single suitcase and a box of books. A reporting job was waiting for me in Havana .

Adjusting to life in Cuba brought laughter and tears

The first Cuban saying I learned was "no es fácil." No, it's not easy. I resigned myself to eating rice every day, sometimes twice, to quiet my stomach. I had no cellphone or internet — technologies not yet mainstreamed in Cuba — or even a landline. Instead, I leaned on friends with connectivity — a hard, early lesson on the favor economy that keeps Cubans afloat.

I rode the bus and took collective taxis, usually a 1950s Detroit hunker with wire hangers for door handles. I thought my Spanish was OK, but Cubans laughed when I spoke, including the kindergarten crowd.

It took years, but I pushed through tears and despair to adapt and thrive. I covered Cuba's medical disaster team in post-earthquake Pakistan and Haiti, crossed the island on a 1946 Harley-Davidson researching a book, and had an 8-hour marathon meeting with Fidel Castro , among other adventures.

There's a difference between an immigrant and an expat

After spending two decades in a country so wildly different from my own and experiencing more than most, I didn't realize how "Cubanized" I'd become.

Related stories

Back in the US, where privacy, personal space, and punctuality are prized, I'm realizing that in Cuba, I was more of an immigrant than a visitor or an expat. The distinction is nuanced but important: immigrants integrate, visitors and expats replicate. Diplomats, retirees, and business people living abroad often try to recreate a semblance of home.

In Cuba, there are upscale "foreigner" neighborhoods — like Siboney and Cubanacán — and international schools for children. There are specialty stores that stock familiar items, making it possible to approximate a more-like-home diet. Some of these expats may not even make an effort to speak Spanish. As an immigrant, on the other hand, I made efforts to adapt, sponging up all the information and mechanisms for how to get along in my adopted country.

Alas, with my sponge saturated and my family needing me, I moved back to the US last year.

Throughout the transition, I've been finding my Cuban ways — things like throwing toilet paper in the trash can, kissing everyone hello, dropping in on friends unannounced — raise eyebrows. And sometimes hackles. I stand too close to people, I make eye contact, I talk to strangers, and I'm 15 minutes late to everything.

The physical move is easy, re-acculturation is tougher

When you've spent almost as much time outside your birth country as in it, like me, the physical move is the easy part; re-learning how to live in the US , has been harder.

Touchless technology confounds me, so I eavesdrop on people using Google Wallet to learn how it's done. Is cash still king, I wonder, or should I tap the suggested tip showing on my server's screen? Those Amazon Go outlets in airports — where you wave your palm over a sensor, enter a well-stocked, unstaffed store, and take what you like — frighten me silly.

I am wholly unaccustomed to finding free stuff everywhere — chopsticks, bookmarks, napkins, Dijon mustard packets, even! — and load up where I can. Cue the sidelong looks.

On the flip side, I'm saddened that college tuition , doctor's visits, and ambulance rides — all free in Cuba — can bankrupt a family in the US. In Cuba, moreover, women have full autonomy over their bodies, which I feel is the only way it should be.

Focusing on what's great about the US

When my brain threatens to short circuit over the differences and contradictions, I focus on what I missed about the US . Here, I'm grateful for fantastic public libraries, fast WiFi, spaying and neutering of pets, littering as a sanctionable offense, dengue-free mosquitoes, and artichokes. And I deeply appreciate my independence; here, I'm not reliant on favors or beholden to anyone for the basics.

What has changed most since I've lived away is me. I realize now that re-adjusting to US life isn't a flip that gets switched, it's a process. Right now, I feel like a newcomer in my own country, baffled by toothpaste selection. I grab the cheapest just to get it over with: cinnamon-flavored Close-Up.

Got a personal essay about living abroad that you want to share? Get in touch with the editor: [email protected] .

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‘The Ministry of Time’ relocates immigrants from history to the present day. The future will never be the same.

Kaliane bradley’s debut novel is a hilarious yet poignant take on dislocation, loss, and oddball community.

As the energetic debut novel “ The Ministry of Time ” opens, our narrator, a British-Cambodian civil servant based in future London, is interviewing for what might be the job of a lifetime (she’ll be tripling her salary, for one thing). Building on her current role as a translator-consultant at the Ministry of Defence, she has already passed the required first-aid, Safeguarding Vulnerable People, and the Home Office’s Life in the UK examinations, and vaguely thinks that the new position has something to do with refugees “of high-interest status and particular needs.”

Boy, does that turn out to be an understatement. Her interview with the terrifying Adela — who sports an eye-patch and introduces herself as the Vice-Secretary of Expatriation — goes smoothly, even as it reaches the more revelatory angle of the meeting. Our narrator, who will be known as a “bridge,” will indeed be working with expats, helping them settle into their new lives in the UK over the course of a year.

“‘And they are expats from…?’” asks the soon-to-be bridge.

“‘History.’

Adela shrugged. ‘We have time travel,’ she said, like someone describing a coffee machine. ‘Welcome to the Ministry.’”

As our narrator explains: “All you need to know is that in your near future, the British government developed the means to travel through time but had not yet experimented with doing it.” But they certainly are experimenting now: The book’s narrator is one of five “bridges” working with expats from history, a handful of individuals carefully selected from various wars, plagues, and disasters who would have perished in their own timelines, the gist of that strategy being: “Removing them from the past ought not to impact the future.” Another aspect of the experiment is focused on exploring what impact time travel might have on people, since “[n]o one had any idea what travelling through time might do to the human body.”

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So far, so mind-spinningly reasonable, though sinister red flags are definitely waving: Two of the original group of seven expats had already perished following the “extraction process.”

Our narrator has her hands full as a bridge to Graham Gore, a Royal Navy officer who had been part of the Franklin expedition to the Arctic, extracted from the year 1847. His colleagues include Margaret Kremble, a woman taken from a plague house in 1665; Thomas Cardingham, a Battle of Naseby lieutenant from 1645; an army captain, Arthur Reginald-Smyth, engaged in 1916′s Battle of the Somme; and Anne Spencer, a woman from 1793 Paris.

The fish-out-of-water syndrome, as you might imagine, hovers irrevocably over the tale. “He came to me knowing the basics about the electric grid, the internal combustion engine and the plumbing system,” notes our narrator — our own personal “bridge,” really — of Graham. “He didn’t know about the First and Second World Wars or the Cold Wars, the sexual liberation of the 1960s, or the war on terror. They had started by telling him about the dismantling of the British Empire, and it hadn’t gone down well.”

But Graham has a robust set of assimilation abilities up his sleeve, propelled both by a luscious sense of humor as well as all the signs of an early adopter. When our narrator decides to teach him how to ride a bike, Graham promptly gets a motorcycle: “‘Did Bellerophon, on seeing Pegasus, say, “Oh, no thank you, terrestrial horses will be sufficient?”’” (His initial introduction to the concept of germs is also quite entertaining.) Learning about washing machines, radios, and vacuum cleaners, he teasingly questions the non-availability of thousand-league boots, invisibility cloaks, and “[s]un-resistant wings of Icarus”: “‘You have enslaved the power of lightning’” he says. “‘And you’ve used it to avoid the tedium of hiring help.’”

And when our narrator, in a misguided bid to be girly, comes home with a bag in the shape of a chicken, Graham responds, “‘I see that even in the future, women remain fascinated by impractical accessories.’”

The spirited development of a more-than-affectionate relationship between our bridge and her naval officer quickly takes on its own life, amid a twisty plotline that incorporates plenty of John le Carré and Mick Herron spy-craft references — safehouses galore, nefarious assassinations, super-secret government activities — with the silly, incisive, and spot-on comedy of Douglas Adams. The scenes where our narrator, Graham, Margaret — who has taken to films and clubbing like a duck to water — and Arthur hang out in each other’s homes or down the pub are a particular pleasure: relaxed, funny, and full of quotidian doings like cooking, drinking cocktails, sharing stories, and laughing.

Then a few things appear to go dreadfully wrong: Anne Spencer stops registering on official scanners; our narrator, during one of her check-ins with Adela, notices bridge reports, unread, in the trash; and even more mendacious elements rear their ugly heads when our bridge takes Graham to a local pub to meet some of her non-Ministry friends. It’s a sudden reminder that “[c]ross-historical immigration is still immigration,” and not everyone might think it’s the best of ideas.

Bradley’s intelligent and fun-infused touch generates a perceptive tale of misfits who create a cohesive and supportive community together, a tale of authentic solidarity that also makes plentiful room for a timely reminder that “the rhythms of loss and asylum, exodus and loneliness, roll like floods across human history.” Even in a novel of the future.

THE MINISTRY OF TIME

By Kaliane Bradley

Avid Reader, 352 pp., $28.99

Daneet Steffens is a journalist and critic. You can find her @daneetsteffens.