Foreign Affairs

Two unexpected romances in London unfold in this Pulitzer Prize–winning novel from "one of this country's most able and witty novelists" (The New York Times).

In her early fifties, Vinnie Miner is the sort of woman no one ever notices, despite her career as an Ivy League professor. Then, alone on a flight to London for a research trip, she sits next to a man she would never have viewed as a potential romantic partner. In a Western-cut suit and a rawhide tie, he is a sanitary engineer from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on a group tour. He's the very opposite of her type, but before Vinnie knows it, she's spending more and more time with him.


Also in London is Vinnie's colleague, a young, handsome English professor whose marriage and self-esteem are both on the rocks. But Fred Turner is also about to find consolation—in the arms of the most beautiful actress in England. Stylish and highborn, she introduces Fred to a glamorous, yet eccentric, London scene that he never expected to encounter.


The course of these two relationships makes up the story of Foreign Affairs—a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie, including rare images from the author's personal collection.

"If you manage to read only a few good novels a year, make this one of them." —USA Today

"An ingenious, touching book." —Newsweek

"A flawless jewel." —The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A brilliant novel . . . Witty, acerbic, and sometimes fiendishly clever." —London Evening Standard