A page-turner, for sure, and an interesting one, too. I am lazy today, so will copy and paste from the Westchester Library System's synopsis of this book. It says it better than I can with all on my plate today!
It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon, Portugal, is the only neutral port
left in Europe--a city filled with spies, crowned heads, and refugees
of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until
their escape. Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan,
two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing
their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated,
independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual
anxieties of their class. As Portugal's neutrality, and the world's
future, hang in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these
four characters--Julia's status as a Jew, Pete and Edward's improbable
affair, Iris's increasingly desperate efforts to save her tenuous
marriage--begin to come loose. This journey will change their lives
irrevocably, as Europe sinks into war.Gorgeously written, sexually and
politically charged, David Leavitt's long-awaited new novel is an
extraordinary work.
I agree! An extraordinary book. I plan to try Leavitt's others, too.
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