Away from Home - by Rona Jaffe (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Life in Brazil brings passion and marital strife to three American couples in a novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of The Best of Everything.

For three hopeful American couples, 1950s Brazil is a land of opportunity. A paradise to build a fortune, find new pleasures and escape the stresses of life in the United States.

For Helen and Bert Sinclair, it's a chance to make a better life for themselves and their two children. But with Bert spending long hours at the office, Helen is filled with a restlessness--a loneliness--she has never felt before in her marriage.

Margie and Neil Davidow appear to have it all. With no children to encumber their exotic lifestyle, they can enjoy a fashionable and fantastic life together. So why have they moved into separate bedrooms?

Mildred Burns simply cannot acclimate to Brazilian society, no matter how many dinner parties she throws. The problem is, her husband Phil adores Brazil and doesn't plan on leaving any time soon.

But as the annual Carnival festival begins and the country is fueled by parties and passion and spectacle, Helen, Margie and Mildred can become anyone they wish behind their festival masks and alluring costumes. But will their lives--and their love for the men they married--be the same once the party is over?

Sophisticated and expertly crafted, Away from Home is an engrossing novel about rediscovering one's identity in an unfamiliar yet captivating country.

Praise for the writing of Rona Jaffe:

"Vivid and trenchant . . . Wry and very readable . . . A minor genius." --The New York TimesBook Review

"Jaffe has not lost her wit, her keen eye for human frailties and her ear for the small but telling remark." --Publishers Weekly

"Reading Rona Jaffe is like being presented with a Cartier watch: you know exactly what you're getting and it's just what you want. Put your feet up, take the phone off the hook, and enjoy." --Cosmopolitan

About the Author

Rona Jaffe (1931-2005) was born in Brooklyn, New York. She attended the Dalton School and graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951 at the age of nineteen. In her early twenties, she worked at Fawcett Publications, starting as a file clerk and working her way up to associate editor. At twenty-five, she quit her job to focus on her novel The Best of Everything (1958). She went on to write sixteen more books during her career including Mr. Right Is Dead (1965), The Other Woman (1972), Family Secrets (1974), Class Reunion (1979), The Road Taken (2000), and The Room-Mating Season (2001). In 1995, she established The Rona Jaffe Foundation, supporting promising emergent women writers. Jaffe died of cancer in 2005.