The Expat Spouse

Gossip. Glamour. Designer clothes. Pool parties. Adultery. Alcoholism. Domestic violence. Suicide.

Do you ever dream about how amazing it might be to live the jet-setting life of an expat wife? Well, it's not all it's cracked up to be according to author Alki Economou who lived just that. In The Expat Wife, Alki outlines her time as she and her family moved across the globe thanks to her husband's job. Follow along on her journey as she moves from Europe to North America and back again; all while dealing with bureaucratic red tape and the daily stresses of being a wife and mother. You'll encounter multifaceted dimensions of the realities involved in the expat life including: Feeling uprooted every time a company relocates you Finding a support system among strangers Discovering yourself while still running a household You'll love this book if you love globetrotting or if you or your partner are considering taking a job that will move you and your family from one country to the next. Share in Alki's stories and see what it takes to truly be an expat wife.

As an expat spouse, how do you choose the right home for your family, transition your kids to a new country and school, adjust to a new culture, and build a whole new network of friends? Expat spouses face many questions, and this book is designed to offer straightforward answers. Written by two expats - with over 15 international moves between them - you'll find inspiration and wisdom to handle your expat dilemmas. Get reading to discover time tested advice that will transform your expat experience into a truly amazing adventure. It's all right here for you to enjoy, so start Unpacking!

“Em’s Awful Good Fortune takes its reader across the world and deep into the heart of its trapped, privileged, suffering, and, ultimately, invincible narrator.” —Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Set against the backdrop of the expat lifestyle, Em’s Awful Good Fortune is about marriage—love and family, work and compromise, betrayal and heartbreak, resentment and resolution. Weaving back and forth in time and between cities and countries, Em’s booming voice—fierce, funny, and relatable—is the engine that drives this story. Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Detroit, Los Angeles and Seoul—Em stomps her way around the world on the personal journey to reimagine and reclaim her voice. True to life, this is a disorderly journey—one that ultimately leads to a new understanding of partnership and the complexity of relationships. For lovers of books by Jennifer Egan, Sally Rooney, and Elizabeth Strout.

"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.

"Darling, I have been promoted and they've asked us to move abroad!" That's what I dreamed of: adventure, change, freedom... but now? Really? Right now? I'm not ready, I'm not organized, the kids, me, us, and everything that goes with it... How do I know if this is the right decision? If these questions resonate, this book is for you. While Florence's experience is as unique as yours is or will be, our questions and fears are often the same. Florence's personal reflections will guide you and open you to new and different ways of thinking and acting for your life abroad.

From how to organise an overseas move to what to do in the event of an earthquake, the Expat Partner's Survival Guide is a light-hearted yet in-depth guide for anyone accompanying their partner on an overseas assignment. In our increasingly globalised society, more and more people are moving to another country to work 0́3 and many of these people are taking their partners and families with them. What does it feel like to sit at home alone in a strange country on the first day your partner leaves for work? How easy is it to find the right school for your child 0́3 and what happens if your child hates it there? Where exactly are you going to track down all the ingredients needed for tonight's dinner? And what happens when it all goes very, very wrong? This authoritative guide draws on the expert advice of more than 70 expat partners who have been there, done that and survived to tell their tales. The experts include author Clara Wiggins, who spent her childhood as a 'trailing daughter' accompanying her diplomat parents on various exotic postings including the Philippines and Venezuela. She later saw life from the other side, when was posted to Jamaica and then took her young family on her husband's postings to Islamabad and St Lucia. She is currently preparing for another move, to South Africa.