Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
Foreign Affairs
by Alison Lurie
Summary
A comic novel of manners that follows two American academics on sabbatical in London: a fiftyish female folklorist studying children's rhymes and a young male professor adrift after a marital break. Lurie uses their parallel romances to skewer Anglo American snobberies, generational difference, and the romantic illusions academics bring to the field. The book earns admiration for its dry wit and its sharp, sympathetic portrait of midlife self knowledge.
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Historical Context & Significance
Critics praised Lurie for her intellectual wit. The novel is a sharp critique of the academic world and the romantic myths Americans hold about England.