English, North America, Stories and Experiences

Followives

Author: Irene Perali

Language: English

Summary: Have you ever left everything behind to follow a dream…which is not yours?
The novel Followives is all about this: five intertwined stories of wives following their husbands who moved from Italy to California to pursue unique career opportunities.

Viola, Bianca, Luna, Giada, and Aurora have just started to discover their career paths in vibrant Milan. These five women don’t have a lot in common until the men in their lives decide to chase their dream jobs in the United States.
Weighing their sentiments more than their aspirations—because there are million perfect jobs, but only one perfect husband—the women leave their lives behind to undertake the Californian adventure.
Unemployed and lonely in a new country, the followives confront endless challenges. Impostor Syndrome, hectic jobs or no jobs at all, sky-high rents and home sickness are just a few of the troubles through which these women’s stories intersect.
The heroines will question everything, including the authenticity of their love, which they have traded for their lives in Italy.

Followives explores different aspects of the immigration flow of mostly male engineers from Italy to California in the 2010s.
The often-unspoken voices of their wives provide a unique point of view that demystifies the contemporary California Gold Rush.

At first, it may seem only a romance novel, but Followives invites the reader to reflect on some critical themes of our society:
Love and career: are we willing to take a step back in our careers in favor of our partners’ careers? Do women do that more often than men?
Living far from your country: can the advantages of living in a foreign country alleviate the nostalgia for your homeland?

Whether you are from Italy, California or any other country, if you enjoy reading about complex relationships, deep psychological characterization and vivid descriptions, Followives is your next book.

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aleexpat15 June 202011 January 2021Leave a comment

English, How-to Guides

A portable identity: a woman’s guide to maintaining a sense of self while moving overseas

Author: Debra R. Bryson, Charise M. Hoge

Language: English

Summary: A Portable Identity: A Woman’s Guide to Maintaining a Sense of Self While Moving Overseas, Revised Edition, is written by two former expatriate spouses who are also counselors. The book educates and empowers expatriate spouses to take charge of the changes in identity that occur during an international relocation. The most profound change a woman will experience when she moves overseas in support of her husband’s career comes from within herself, to her own sense of identity. With two, three, or more years of an overseas assignment, a woman faces the formidable task of creating a life for herself in an unfamiliar country. Unlike any other book about overseas living, this book explains with clarity, candor and compassion, how each stage of the move affects a woman’s identity. A Portable Identity is an interactive book with practical exercises and inspiring stories. It is designed to be a companion and guide for the woman who wants to know how her identity is affected at each stage of the move, from pre-departure to arrival, and while living overseas. The book also explains why the thoughts and feelings she may experience as an expatriate spouse are normal within the context of so much change, and how she can use the steps of The Wheel to shape her identity in a way that honors her sense of self while living in a foreign country and culture, as well as during repatriation. Source: Amazon.com

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