First published 2007
A man drags his reluctant family across the world to Xi'an province, convinced that China holds the key to reclaiming something he has lost within himself. But the foreign landscape only deepens his sense of displacement, leaving him more isolated than before. Across these stories, Egan follows characters who chase transformation in distant places. Models seek reinvention in glamorous Manhattan. Housewives escape to exotic locales like Kenya and Bora Bora. Schoolgirls in suburban Illinois dream of lives beyond their daily routines. Each character believes that somewhere else, in some other version of themselves, lies the answer to their restlessness. They pursue change through travel, through relationships, through radical alterations of body and circumstance. Yet their journeys reveal how the borders of desire stretch far beyond geography, and how the search for redemption often leads to unexpected territories of the heart.
Genres: literary-fiction, travel, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, search-for-redemption
Setting: China, Xi'an Province, Kenya, Bora Bora, Illinois
Period: 21st-century
Paperback · Picador