The most recommended books about expats

Graham Greene is considered by many to be the acknowledged master of expat tales. This is actually one of his lesser-known novels. It tells the story of Querry, an internationally famous architect suffering from terminal ennui. Life no longer holds meaning for him, or even pleasure. He takes a boat up river in Africa to its last stop, a leper village in the Congo. There, he attempts to lose himself by helping the indigenous afflicted, and in so doing begins to cure his own ills as well. But fate and the white community can’t let well enough alone. 

This novel brings readers up close and personal with Hong Kong. Clarke is a young Englishman doing a banking stint in the fabled city. He lives a relatively sedate existence in his corporately antiseptic neighborhood. But one day he decides to get off his beaten path and winds up having his life changed dramatically. He becomes enamored with a shantytown prostitute, embroiled in the geopolitical struggle with Mainland China, and involved in a potential swindle of international proportions. In addition to spinning an interesting tale, Craft is also able to weave in the ticking time bomb of environmental hazards that plague the area without pious preaching and totally within the confines of the story he’s telling. 

This novel is in the POV of Henry James, following him around England and the world during the last years of his life, watching him pick up threads of inspiration for his stories. The reader is privy to his awful, slow awareness of how he had irreparably hurt the women in his life, including his sister.

And yet, he defends the selfishness he needed to do his art. Written in his style, which he referred to as “The Mystery of the Self,” you have to love his writing to love this book, and I did. Some people don’t.

Best quote from one of the women, in an argument about sermons and fiction: “When you close The Mill on the Floss, you know much more about how strange and beautiful it is to be alive than when you read a thousand sermons.” 

Arguably Chinese history’s most romanticized foreign resident, Carl Crow is a sort of Gatsby-esque expatriate hailing from glamorous 1920s Shanghai. The dapper ad agency magnate (who was behind those now-iconic “haipai” Chinese calendar girls), penned 16 books about China, most notably Foreign Devils in the Flowery Kingdom. Rivaling The Great Gatsby in decadent cocktail parties, privileged bachelors on the prowl, and shameless colonialist classicism, Flowery focuses strictly on the ritzy lives of Shanghai’s Occidental aristocracy, with only a passing mention of the people whose world they inhabit. To contemporary readers, it may come across as offensively unwoke, but as a historical account of that era’s high society expatriates, it is fascinating.

Dr. Makary begins with an almost unreal story of a French citizen who had the unfortunate luck of having a heart attack in the US. I won’t give it away, but used car dealers come out smelling like roses, and I did that for a while, back in my youth. Such a lesson. Americans sorely need perspective on what great care is and how to pay for it. Dr. Makary does a fantastic job outlining two little-known middlemen sucking money out of American wallets. Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Group Purchasing Organizations. Both use tactics that would make Tony Soprano smile.

What I love about this book, and why I recommend it, is while spotlighting problems, he offers solutions, and spotlights people making a difference.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from John Julius Reel asking to blurb his new book My Half Orange. I read it and happily endorsed it. Reel moved to Seville from his native New York in his late 30s. Recovering from a broken relationship, he was adrift. Reel met his Andalusian wife—his half-orange—and in short order, they moved in together and had two sons.

Like other ex-pats, Reel bridges two cultures. His parents live in New England, and his wife’s Spanish family lives close— perhaps too close—to Reel, his wife, and his children. Published this year, My Half Orange is the latest addition to “ex-pats” in Spain.  

Graham Earnshaw, who has resided in the Middle Kingdom for the past 40+ years (longer than any other living expat here today), has also been casually strolling from Shanghai due west toward Tibet over the past two decades. Fluent in Mandarin, his spontaneous conversations with local peasants he has encountered along the way make The Great Walk a delightfully pleasant and profoundly insightful read. Published in 2010 by a small Hong Kong indie press and tragically overlooked by most Sinophiles, I can’t recommend this enough to anyone seeking an upbeat, unpretentious narrative of a foreigner drifting among the Chinese.

Decidedly contemporary China’s most provocative foreign writer, Isham Cook has spent the past decade in Beijing penning books about taboo subject matter that heretofore few expat authors have been willing to publicly reveal about their lives here. Specifically, prurience and libertine excess. I liken him as a reincarnated Edmund Backhouse with a hint of Henry Miller and a dash of de Sade. In his putative memoir The Mustachioed Woman of Shanghai, Cook reimagines himself as an Asian woman in order to psychoanalyze his past relationships with Chinese girlfriends whom he tormented with polyamory. If nothing else, read this for its sheer audacity.

Joshua's main character and fiery Italian babe Bella is spot on! She’s got the confidence, she’s sassy, and has that typical Italian hot temper. Not dominant per say, but she’s powerful and has a certain charisma and charm. She’s relatable to those who know what they want and seek it out. I also like her softer side…which you will have to read to find out about!

In my ongoing research into America’s dysfunctional healthcare system, Dr. Ken Fisher was a name I kept hearing. “Read his book,” said the MDs I trust. The roots of our current mess stretch back over one hundred years. Just after blood-letting was a thing. I didn’t know Otto Von Bismarck offered a nationalized healthcare plan for Germany. Though he failed, Prime Minister Lloyd George introduced the concept to England, and the NHS was born. Ken lays out the dominoes and how they fell into today’s American system. I learned how unleashing Health Savings Accounts enables a better system than the current employer-centered mess. I was thrilled Ken agreed to be a Winning Healthcare Food Fights podcast guest.