If you enjoy reading trailing-spouse adventures, and summertime happens to be when you feel a yearning for some new material, we’ve got you covered once again — this time with a trio of stories spanning from the United Kingdom to Malaysia!
Feel free to also reflect on our previous book recommendations (December 2020, June 2021, June 2023) or join my quest to read these books over the next few months:
I’m very excited to tell fellow trailing spouses about my new novel The Light That Bends Round Corners, which tells the story of the interweaving lives of a British expat woman, Laura, and Mariel, her Filipina maid. The book is both a humorous account of expat life — a kind of 21st century version of “The Durrells” (the TV adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s Corfu Trilogy) — while also exploring more serious themes such as abuse, mental health, and migration.
It’s ultimately a story about love, belonging, and discovery.
When I first heard the term “trailing spouse,” I had just moved to the United States. Being labeled took me by surprise, and I couldn’t help but cringe.
This wasn’t my family’s first move prompted by my husband’s marketing career — we had previously relocated from India to Malaysia and Singapore — or a new sense of struggle. With every move, I grappled with loneliness and a feeling of being uprooted, while managing my family’s transition, my career ambitions and my own emotional needs.
But going from Asia to North America was a more challenging culture shock.