IN FOREIGN FIELDS: HOW NOT TO MOVE TO FRANCE
by SUSIE KELLY
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Dec 03 2018 | Archive Date Feb 10 2019
Talking about this book? Use #InForeignFieldsHowNotToMoveToFrance #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Susie and Terry dream of living in France. The dream comes true, but not in the way they had imagined.
Yes, the countryside is spacious and peaceful. On summer nights the stars skim the rooftops, the owls hoot and the nightingales sing. Sunflowers smile from their fields. The wine is cheap and the baguettes are crusty. The French neighbours are generous and gentle.
But then come the drug addicts, builders who cannot build, demanding compatriots, undercover cops and unwelcome guests. Susie begins to lose hope of attracting the fabled French philanderer and, far from appreciating their new home, the animals do everything they can to make life as difficult as possible. With her house literally crumbling around her, the number of odd characters Susie manages to attract are only matched by the assortment of creatures appearing from in and out of the woodwork. Terry almost dies, and Susie's resilience and good humour are tested to the limit.
Sometimes it feels more like taking part in a musical comedy than starting a new life in France.
As the date for Britain leaving the European Union draws close, and the British living in European countries still have no idea what the future holds for them after Brexit, Susie looks back on the beginning of her life in the country she loves and has called home for 23 years.
Another delightful, very funny, memoir from the bestselling, much-loved, travel author Susie Kelly.
First Ebook edition of Two Steps Backwards, originally published by Bantam/Transworld as a UK paperback. Launching worldwide, this edition is updated and contains new material - including, for the first time, photographs.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781916426832 |
| PRICE | $6.99 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Librarian 431790
An entertaining and enjoyable book. I love this book full of funny anecdotes and quirky people.
I laughed out loud from time to time and read it in one setting.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC
Abby S, Reviewer
Susie and Terry dream of living in France but when they move there it is not bas idyllic as they thought it would be.They share with us their adventure. The quirky people they encounter the difficulties dealing with them.So entertaining so much fun a wonderful read,#netgalley #blackbirddigitalbooks.
Shelly W, Bookseller
In Foreign Fields: How Not To Move To France by Susie Kelly
Not just another entry into the ever growing collection of books about moving to a foreign country and restarting your life in a new place, In Foreign Fields: How Not To Move To France, is a quirky and amusing take on this trend. Susie Kelly and her husband, Terry, had dreamed of buying land in rural France, someday. Then the recession of the 1990s happened, and suddenly Susie and Terry go from owning two businesses, a home, a small plane, and two cars to being hounded by debt collectors and losing almost everything except their dogs, two old horses, and some plastic lawn furniture. With nothing left to lose, they decide to make their someday dream of moving to France a present day reality. And, of course, hilarity ensues.
Susie Kelly writes in a voice that leaves the reader feeling as if they know her, or even are her. This is not your typical moving-to-France memoir. She meets not only French natives, but a lot of English ex-pats as well. So very many of them are quirky characters. She seems to attract off-beat personalities, making for a much more interesting story. And it offers her more challenges in her attempts to create a bucolic country life and carve out time for being a writer. Rather than feel lonely, she finds herself longing for some undisturbed “alone time.”
Reinventing one’s life isn’t easy when you do have access to money. It can be even more of a challenge when you don’t. Trying to restore a decaying farm house into a livable home without much in the way of disposable income challenges the author and her husband to become much more creative in their problem solving abilities and brings ever more interesting characters into their lives. These disadvantages of limited resources also show them what they are made of and who the people around them really are, allowing them to recognize how important the kindness of people, especially strangers, are to each of us. It is also in trying times that one finds out who really is a true friend.
Overall, a really enjoyable read that will leave one with the sense that no matter how difficult things seem to be at any given time, it is still possible to make your dreams come true. Especially if you possess a sense of humor and a willingness to adapt.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
