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:
Michelle spent 18 years as a trailing spouse in three countries before moving back to India — where her adjustment adventures have continued after all, as chronicled in her new book, “Becoming Goan: A Contemporary Coming Home Story,” one of our summer reading recommendations. This is Part 1 of her story.
My trailing-spouse adventure began in 1993, when my husband Bharat was offered a job in either Dubai, UAE or Nairobi, Kenya. We evaluated both opportunities and chose Dubai for the safety of our young family. (Our son Kunal was two years old when we left India.)
After the initial culture shock, we began the business of settling into Dubai with supermarket shopping, high heat and humidity, getting a UAE driving license, hiring house help, and finding a job for myself. We were young and enthusiastic and easily adapted to our multicultural, international lifestyle and developed a palette for Arabic food — still a favorite to this day — and Thai cuisine.