"A smart, sparkling novel that is one part social satire, one part travelogue . . . Comical and cool.” —Oprah Daily
In Katie Crouch's thrilling novel Embassy Wife, two women abroad search for the truth about their husbands—and their country.
Meet Persephone Wilder, a displaced genius posing as the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia. Persephone takes her job as a representative of her country seriously, coming up with an intricate set of rules to survive the problems she encounters: how to dress in hundred-degree weather without showing too much skin, how not to look drunk at embassy functions, and how to eat roasted oryx with grace. She also suspects her husband is not actually the ambassador’s legal counsel but a secret agent in the CIA. The consummate embassy wife, she takes the newest trailing spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing.
Amanda arrives in Namibia mere weeks after giving up her Silicon Valley job so her husband, Mark, can have his family close by as he works on his Fulbright project. But once they’re settled in the sub-Saharan desert, Amanda sees clearly that Mark, who lived in Namibia two decades earlier, has other reasons for returning. Back in the safety of home, the marriage had seemed solid; in the glaring heat of the Kalahari, it feels tenuous. And the situation grows even more fraught when their daughter becomes involved in an international conflict and their own government won’t stand up for her.
How far will Amanda go to keep her family intact? How much corruption can Persephone ignore? And what, exactly, does it mean to be an American abroad when you’re not sure you understand your country anymore?
Propulsive and provocative, Embassy Wife asks what it means to be a human in this world, even as it helps us laugh in the face of our own absurd, seemingly impossible states of affairs.
Genre: Literary Fiction
In Katie Crouch's thrilling novel Embassy Wife, two women abroad search for the truth about their husbands—and their country.
Meet Persephone Wilder, a displaced genius posing as the wife of an American diplomat in Namibia. Persephone takes her job as a representative of her country seriously, coming up with an intricate set of rules to survive the problems she encounters: how to dress in hundred-degree weather without showing too much skin, how not to look drunk at embassy functions, and how to eat roasted oryx with grace. She also suspects her husband is not actually the ambassador’s legal counsel but a secret agent in the CIA. The consummate embassy wife, she takes the newest trailing spouse, Amanda Evans, under her wing.
Amanda arrives in Namibia mere weeks after giving up her Silicon Valley job so her husband, Mark, can have his family close by as he works on his Fulbright project. But once they’re settled in the sub-Saharan desert, Amanda sees clearly that Mark, who lived in Namibia two decades earlier, has other reasons for returning. Back in the safety of home, the marriage had seemed solid; in the glaring heat of the Kalahari, it feels tenuous. And the situation grows even more fraught when their daughter becomes involved in an international conflict and their own government won’t stand up for her.
How far will Amanda go to keep her family intact? How much corruption can Persephone ignore? And what, exactly, does it mean to be an American abroad when you’re not sure you understand your country anymore?
Propulsive and provocative, Embassy Wife asks what it means to be a human in this world, even as it helps us laugh in the face of our own absurd, seemingly impossible states of affairs.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"It is never easy for a writer to enter into the persona or voices not entirely their own. But then, that is what writing is at heart - to dare to imagine and render with integrity and compassion, vulnerability and as much honesty as we can, the experiences of our characters in the stories that come out of our particular hauntings. When a writer can bring a full measure of self reflexivity to it, then the work is even better for it. In this book of big hearts and fears, and complex and sometimes contradictory characters set against the backdrop of Namibia, we come to see all these qualities. Katie Crouch has crafted an honest and complicated novel of true human beings struggling to be more than they are with less than they should have. Embassy Wife is a deeply human story won with grace and elegance." - Chris Abani
"Katie Crouch is an incredible writer –deft, fearless, super-smart and compassionate– and Embassy Wife is one of the funniest, sharpest, most insightful novels I've read in a long time. It's also a flat-out page-turner: I read it in a single, feverish sitting; then again, a second time, trying to figure out how she pulled off such an intricately constructed narrative that manages to read so effortlessly. A tremendous novel by a writer who surprises and moves us with each new book. I can't recommend this novel highly enough." - Molly Antopol
"Embassy Wife sparkles with intelligence and sly humor. It is an exploration of identity-marriage, career, family and citizenship-and what happens when those once fixed ideas begin to crack. Come for an escape to Namibia, stay for Katie Crouch’s tremendous wisdom, humor and the page-turning ride as characters are pressed beyond their limits. This novel is pure pleasure." - Ramona Ausubel
"Keenly observed and expertly crafted, Katie Crouch's Embassy Wife is a wickedly irresistible novel." - Natalie Baszile
"Embassy Wife is such a swift and delicious novel that a reader can be forgiven for looking up halfway through the book with the slow-dawning realization that all along, underneath this mordant farce, Katie Crouch had some sharp, urgent and intricate things to say about colonization and race, privilege and power, and the often explosive intersection of all of these things in today's Namibia. It is a fascinating novel, and beautifully told." - Lauren Groff
"Embassy Wife is a book that showcases Katie Crouch’s mastery of the three skills I most value as a reader and writer: keen and sensitive observation of human behavior, a wry sense of humor, and authenticity of character. It is a story set in a foreign place-a small place-that manages to transcend its geography through Katie’s excellent depiction of characters and places. Namibia, comes off the page with its dusty heat, its slow pace of life, its nascent and unfolding place in history, and the sheer pressure of the drama that unfolds in Katie’s story. Embassy Wife is a rare diamond of a story that adds to Namibia’s emerging and budding literary footprint." - Rémy Ngamije
"Katie Crouch is an incredible writer –deft, fearless, super-smart and compassionate– and Embassy Wife is one of the funniest, sharpest, most insightful novels I've read in a long time. It's also a flat-out page-turner: I read it in a single, feverish sitting; then again, a second time, trying to figure out how she pulled off such an intricately constructed narrative that manages to read so effortlessly. A tremendous novel by a writer who surprises and moves us with each new book. I can't recommend this novel highly enough." - Molly Antopol
"Embassy Wife sparkles with intelligence and sly humor. It is an exploration of identity-marriage, career, family and citizenship-and what happens when those once fixed ideas begin to crack. Come for an escape to Namibia, stay for Katie Crouch’s tremendous wisdom, humor and the page-turning ride as characters are pressed beyond their limits. This novel is pure pleasure." - Ramona Ausubel
"Keenly observed and expertly crafted, Katie Crouch's Embassy Wife is a wickedly irresistible novel." - Natalie Baszile
"Embassy Wife is such a swift and delicious novel that a reader can be forgiven for looking up halfway through the book with the slow-dawning realization that all along, underneath this mordant farce, Katie Crouch had some sharp, urgent and intricate things to say about colonization and race, privilege and power, and the often explosive intersection of all of these things in today's Namibia. It is a fascinating novel, and beautifully told." - Lauren Groff
"Embassy Wife is a book that showcases Katie Crouch’s mastery of the three skills I most value as a reader and writer: keen and sensitive observation of human behavior, a wry sense of humor, and authenticity of character. It is a story set in a foreign place-a small place-that manages to transcend its geography through Katie’s excellent depiction of characters and places. Namibia, comes off the page with its dusty heat, its slow pace of life, its nascent and unfolding place in history, and the sheer pressure of the drama that unfolds in Katie’s story. Embassy Wife is a rare diamond of a story that adds to Namibia’s emerging and budding literary footprint." - Rémy Ngamije
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