L'Affaire - Softcover

Johnson, Diane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452285631 ISBN 13: 9780452285637

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2004

Synopsis

"Johnson is more droll than Henry James, to whom she's been compared, and she's as witty as a modern-day Voltaire. Vraiment, L'Affaire, c'est irresistible!”—Publishers Weekly

Amy Hawkins, a Palo Alto girl who made herself a dot-com fortune, goes to France to get a sheen of sophistication and, perhaps, to have an affair that will ruffle her all-too-steady heart. She starts her quest in a glamorous resort in the French Alps, amid an assortment of aristocrats and ski enthusiasts. But when two of the hotel’s guests are swept away by an avalanche, Adrian’s children—young, old, legitimate, illegitimate—assemble to protect their interests, feuding under the competing laws of the British, American, and French systems.

Amy, already suspect because she is American, steps in to assist, and unintentionally sets in motion a series of events that spotlight ancient national differences, customs, and laws. Filled with love, sex, death, and travel, L’Affaire is National Book Award finalist Diane Johnson at her very best.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Amy Hawkins, a young dot-com executive from California who has made her fortune at the top of NASDAQ, sets off for Europe to find culture, her roots, and maybe a cause to devote her considerable fortune to. Amy starts her quest at one of the finest small hotels in the French Alps--a hotel noted for skiing and its famous cooking lessons--in the town of Valmeri, amid an assortment of Euro trash aristocrats and ski enthusiasts. She has no plans to fall in love.

On the first afternoon, she is nearly swept away by an avalanche . . .

With a memorable cast of characters assembled on an unmistakably European stage, Diane Johnson has crafted a penetrating comedy of manners about being American in Europe--and about love.

About the Author:

Diane Johnson is the author of the bestselling novel Le Divorce, a National Book Award finalist, as well as many other novels, including Persian Nights, Health and Happiness, Lying Low, The Shadow Knows, and Burning. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Persian Nights, and she co-authored the screenplay to The Shining with Stanley Kubrick. She divides her time between San Francisco and Paris.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0452285631
• ISBN 13: 9780452285637
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352