An Unexpected Guest
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Like Virginia Woolf did in MRS DALLOWAY, Anne Korkeakivi brilliantly weaves the complexities of an age into an act as deceptively simple as hosting a dinner party in this alluring and timely debut.
tonight a dinner could change the future - if a terrible secret doesn't destroy it first. Clare Moorhouse is an American in Paris who has been leading a graceful life abroad. there are pleasures to being married to a high-ranking diplomat, but there are also appearances to be upheld and responsibilities to be executed - like tonight's unexpected dinner party, one crucial to her husband's career. As Clare navigates the spring-green streets of Paris, shopping for fresh stalks of asparagus, the right cheeses, and flowers for the table, she is haunted by a brief period of violence in her past that threatens to resurface and crack the immaculate veneer she's worked so hard to achieve. At tonight's dinner, her husband hopes to receive a new posting. But to Clare, the potential move means wrestling with a secret that has been deeply and carefully buried for twenty-five years - or so she thought. the myriad preparations for dinner are only the beginning of her day's complications. Clare's son appears on her doorstep, absent without permission from his boarding school. But much more unsettling is a face in the crowd that she glimpses again and again. A face that belongs to that other, darker era of her life, and one she never expected to see again. Like Virginia Woolf did in MRS DALLOWAY, Anne Korkeakivi brilliantly weaves the complexities of an age into an act as deceptively simple as hosting a dinner party in this alluring and timely debut. "Anne Korkeakivi writes wonderfully about embassy manners, food, and Paris, and she writes even better about the darker world that threatens to disrupt not just Clare's seating plan for dinner but her entire life. AN UNEXPECtED GUESt is a novel that, like its heroine, possesses great elegance, enormous surprises, and unexpected depth." Margot Livesey, author of tHE HOUSE ON FORtUNE StREEt
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
It's not surprising that the prolific short-fiction writer Korkeakivi's debut novel takes place over a 24-hour period. What is surprising is the depth and magnitude she attains from what first appears to be a thin premise. Clare Moorhouse is the wife of a British diplomat stationed in Paris, a man in line for a promotion to the ambassadorship of Ireland. All Clare has to do is host an elegant dinner with top-ranking officials and make sure it runs smoothly. It's something she's done a thousand times, but this evening is different. The mention of Ireland triggers a flood of memories regarding a youthful but grave mistake she made in college that she's never forgiven herself for. Running errands throughout the city in preparation for the party, she's forced to face the demons she's been carrying by encounters with two men one of whom has been dead for more than 20 years. Korkeakivi fluidly fuses the past and present, building a solid character in Clare and powerfully exploring whether redemption from past regrets is possible and the lengths one must go to attain it.
