The Foreigners

If the average novel is a journey, Maxine Swann's The Foreigners is a vacation: a plot with no particular place to go, except those that look immediately interesting, and no particular reason to get anywhere. Desultory at times, feverishly excited at others, The Foreignerslets the experiences of its main characters develop out of the glittering yet enigmatic backdrop of Argentina's capital.

The Foreigners' narrator, an American named Daisy, moves to Argentina ostensibly to study the city's waterways but ultimately to rediscover herself after her divorce leaves her psychologically adrift. There she befriends an unpredictable Argentine named Leonarda and a polished Austrian named Isolde, two radically different women who are wandering Buenos Aires with the same muddled desire to find themselves.

Daisy finds herself entangled in Leonarda's harebrained schemes and propping up Isolde's disintegrating Euro-artist façade; soon, her plans to study waterways and her post-divorce depression are forgotten. Feeling trapped, she makes a break for Uruguay, only to discover that her true chances of returning to herself lay in Buenos Aires--with or without her new friendships. Meanwhile, Leonarda and Isolde come to some surprising conclusions of their own, as the city pushes each woman toward her own personal metamorphosis.

Astonishing, precise and beautifully written, The Foreigners offers not only a stunning view of Argentine life, but also a literary trip that is neither overplanned nor easily forgotten. --Dani Alexis Ryskamp, blogger at Intractable Bibliophilia

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