Description
Book SynopsisIn France, Mattie feels 20 again. In Poland, Magda revisits her impoverished family. In Uzbekistan, Diana lets a fellow tourist kiss her. In Germany, Lynn loses her luggage on the Düsseldorf train.
The Hopeful Traveller is a collection of short stories about—and told by—single women who have put the past behind them but are still looking for their anchor in the present. It includes bitter-sweet accounts of the freedoms of postwar life, of foreign travel, of the rekindling of old friendships and of the search for new ones. The stories speak of cosmopolitan, self-confident, well-heeled characters, in an era just before the birth of feminism, conventional in their expectations of men, always just a step away from displacement and alienation.
Set variously in Paris, Kalisz, Samarkand, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Erfurt, Singapore and London, these stories, from a much-admired veteran writer, offer a teasing mix of realism and fantasy, wish-fulfilment and regret. Some of these stories have appeared in translation in overseas annuals and collections.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Pari Perspectives 1; On the Terrace 5; The Way to the Park 20; Trees 27; The Hopeful Traveller 49; Nothing to do with the Moon 75; In the Heat of the Sun 96; Pearl of Wisdom 121; A Visit to Erfurt 137; Ghosts 147; Hothouse 155; The Babysitter 179; Sauce for the Goose 193; The Overcrowded Inn 220.
