The War Between the Tates: A Novel

A young couple from New England's Ivy League plunges into a culture clash during a year in Los Angeles

When his mentor at Harvard University suddenly leaves for Washington, Paul Cattleman finds himself adrift in the wilds of academia. He's lost his fellowship position for the fall semester, can find work only in what he considers to be intellectual cesspits—schools that would brand the young history professor as forever unsuitable for the Ivy League—and he's one thesis short of a PhD. Rather than doom his career, he takes a temporary job in Los Angeles, a city whose superficial charms signal an adventure. He is ready to make the best of his year out west. The only thing holding him back is his wife.

Katherine is a New Englander through and through, and as soon as she steps into the LA smog, she knows this transition will be a struggle. What Paul sees as fun, she considers vulgar. But while Los Angeles may be a cultural wasteland, this East Coast girl will find...

Polly Alter is 39, a failed artist whose marriage has collapsed but who has just been commissioned to write the biography of a brilliant but obscure artist, Lorin Jones. Alter becomes obsessed with finding the truth about Lorin Jones, and when she does, she is exposed to truths about herself, as well.

On a hot midsummer morning, after sixteen years of marriage, Jane saw her husband fifty feet away and did not recognise him. Alan has changed because he's injured his back. Pain has altered his appearance, but he has also changed in other ways: he has become glum and demanding. Jane has to do everything for him - fetching, carrying, shopping, cooking, even dressing and undressing him. When she longs for escape, her mother accuses her of selfishness - of course she can't abandon a man so handicapped and needy - Meanwhile Henry cares in a different way for his self-centred wife, Delia, a writer and researcher specialising in fairytales, who in her own estimation is a 'Great Artist'. He tends the flame, making certain Delia gets everything she desires including spectacular doses of adulation. Can sexy Delia, with her trailing scarves and lacy shirts, coax Alan out of his grumpiness? Can Henry stop Jane feeling guilty? Can the couples swap roles?

Are some of the world's most talented children's book authors essentially children themselves? In this engaging series of essays, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alison Lurie considers this theory, exploring children's classics from many eras and relating them to the authors who wrote them, including author Louisa May Alcott and author Frank Baum, as well as Dr. Seuss and Salman Rushdie. Analyzing these and many others, Lurie shows how these gifted writers have used children's literature to transfigure sorrow, nostalgia, and the struggles of their own experiences.

Профессору английской литературы Винни Майнер пятьдесят четыре, она не очень красива и давно поставила крест на своей личной жизни. Побывав замужем, Винни раз и навсегда отказалась от идеи брака. Изредка в ее постели появляются партнеры, но не более того. Она довольна своей жизнью, работой и собой. Но все меняется, когда Винни в очередной раз отправляется в Англию. И взбаламутил ее жизнь неотесанный мужлан Чак из американского захолустья…

Фред Тернер, молодой коллега Винни, неприлично красив и терпеть не может Англию. В этой стране его раздражает буквально все: еда, погода, аборигены. Его лондонская жизнь — сплошная тоска, пока в нее не врывается Розмари, блистательная звезда британских мыльных опер…

Ни Фред, ни Винни не помышляли об иностранных связях, отправляясь в Англию, но именно они опутали их плотным коконом из любви, тоски, легкого безумия и тонкого английского юмора.

«Иностранные связи» — роман о любви, роман об одиночестве, получивший Пулитцеровскую премию — самую престижную литературную премию США. Именно «Иностранные связи» принесли Элисон Лури славу, роман был переведен на очень многие языки и экранизирован.