From the Author
I have always been fascinated by World War II. Perhaps because I was growing up during that period, the era of the 1930s and '40s has an emotional pull for me that subsequent wars and historical events lack. My father was a doctor, a Colonel in the Army Medical Corps. We were camp followers--going to live in North Carolina and Alabama when he was stationed in those states. I love to read history books and novels written about "The War," as people of my generation usually refer to it. The films and music of the time captivate me. Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt--larger than life figures; the OSS, the Maquis...those names conjure up visions of intrigue and heroism. I remember a family friend who was dropped behind enemy lines...those words, "dropped behind enemy lines" still give me a chill. I once met a woman whose father was a diplomat; as a teenager, she traveled back and forth across the Atlantic in convoys several times during the first few years of The War, living in London and Switzerland, until it was cut off to Americans. And so, for THE EXPATRIATE, I created Alexa Summerfield, an American student at Oxford, who is swept up in the onslaught of the Nazi war. Because I have spent a great amount of time in Austria, I used that beautiful country as my setting. This novel has been a work in progress for many years. For the research, I traveled to England, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and the eastern republics of the former Soviet Union. It is the tale of an extraordinary woman who finds herself in the most unexpected and dire circumstances. It is about the OSS and the Austrian Resistance. I hope you enjoy it!
From the Back Cover
"If you like long, interesting stories about the drama of history and the ways of men with women, author Harriet Segal has written a book just for you. THE EXPATRIATE is a novel about the European scene before, during, and after the great war of the twentieth century. It has an absorbing story line, a classical romance, and a wonderfully researched depiction of the era's historical chaos. And thanks to e-book magic...it is as light as a feather and an inexpensive bargain. Perfect for a long trip, a vacation, or stolen hours at home. Read it!"
--Noah Gordon, Author of THE PHYSICIAN
"The Expatriate is a book about the tumultuous years before, during and after World War II, and the swirling social forces and wrenching personal struggles that bring alive that era--told with Harriet Segal's characteristic passion, insight and deftness. It's about time Segal gave us another novel to enjoy...you will be transported by a great story well told."
--Larry Tye, a former Boston Globe Reporter, is the author of the recent New York
Times bestseller, Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend
"In its wonderfully detailed progress, THE EXPATRIATE explores the several meanings of expatriation--from the land, the homeland, the loss of possessions and heritage and then of life itself. Its indomitable lovers lose all but their integrity, and the story of their struggle is both a public and a private history: Europe and the human heart at war. Harriet Segal here offers us a tale of great geographical range and real emotional depth."
--Nicholas Delbanco, Author of Lastingness: The Art of Old Age and twenty-five
works of fiction and non-fiction, is the Robert Frost Distinguished
University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University
of Michigan
About the Author
Harriet Segal has long been associated with the field of international science and medicine. She has traveled extensively and lived the expatriate life herself for several years in India, with her scientist husband, the late Sheldon J. Segal, where she worked as a writer for the U.S. Information Agency. She is the author of four acclaimed novels: Susquehanna, Catch the Wind, Shadow Mountain and The Skylark's Song. Segal grew up in Wilkes-Barre, PA. was educated at Wellesley College, and has been a copywriter, journalist and editor. The mother of three daughters and grandmother of seven, she recently moved from New York to the Boston suburbs and spends her summers on Cape Cod. She is at work on a novel about the world of medical research.
