An Unexpected Guest: A Novel

Overview

"A beautifully written novel about living with our many selves."
- Nicola Keegan, author of Swimming

 Clare Moorhouse, the American wife of a high-ranking diplomat in Paris, is arranging an official dinner crucial to her husband's career. As she shops for fresh stalks of asparagus and works out the menu and seating arrangements, her day is complicated by the unexpected arrival of her son and a random encounter with a Turkish man, whom she ...

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An Unexpected Guest

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More About This Book

Overview

"A beautifully written novel about living with our many selves."
- Nicola Keegan, author of Swimming

 Clare Moorhouse, the American wife of a high-ranking diplomat in Paris, is arranging an official dinner crucial to her husband's career. As she shops for fresh stalks of asparagus and works out the menu and seating arrangements, her day is complicated by the unexpected arrival of her son and a random encounter with a Turkish man, whom she discovers is a suspected terrorist. More unnerving is a recurring face in the crowd, one that belonged to another, darker era of her life. One she never expected to see again.

Like Virginia Woolf did in Mrs. Dalloway, Anne Korkeakivi brilliantly weaves the complexities of an age into an act as deceptively simple as hosting a dinner party.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Like the good diplomat's wife that she is, Clare Moorhouse is busy organizing the official dinner that she is about to host. All her conscientious preparations, however, can not keep her from fretting over her younger son's recent behavior or worrying about the possible exposure of a scandalous past incident from her own past. Anna Korkeakivi's An Unexpected Guest is a first novel that almost simultaneously evoke Virginia Woolf and Eric Ambler.

— Sessalee Hensley

Whole Living Magazine
"In this first novel, Korkeakivi updates Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway with a new heroine....The book is as wonderfully self-possessed as it leading lady, and winningly suspenseful as well.
George Hagen
"Anne Korkeakivi's writing has all the best qualities of an Ishiguro novel. Clare, a seemingly selfless diplomat's wife, the epitome of restraint and hermetic detachment, unravels before us into a woman of dangerous allegiances, passions, and moral dilemmas, in prose that is both beautiful and razor sharp. Paris is depicted with subtle complexity, a city that reposes as it threatens, full of scorn and grace. Korkeakivi's sense of detail is remarkable while grounded in authenticity. An Unexpected Guest is a feast of a novel."
Yvonne Zipp
"An Unexpected Guest is a quietly intelligent novel about a woman who, at long last, learns to be honest with herself."
Publishers Weekly
It’s not surprising that the prolific short-fiction writer Korkeakivi’s debut novel takes place over a 24-hour period. What is surprising is the depth and magnitude she attains from what first appears to be a thin premise. Clare Moorhouse is the wife of a British diplomat stationed in Paris, a man in line for a promotion to the ambassadorship of Ireland. All Clare has to do is host an elegant dinner with top-ranking officials—and make sure it runs smoothly. It’s something she’s done a thousand times, but this evening is different. The mention of Ireland triggers a flood of memories regarding a youthful but grave mistake she made in college that she’s never forgiven herself for. Running errands throughout the city in preparation for the party, she’s forced to face the demons she’s been carrying by encounters with two men–one of whom has been dead for more than 20 years. Korkeakivi fluidly fuses the past and present, building a solid character in Clare and powerfully exploring whether redemption from past regrets is possible and the lengths one must go to attain it. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman. (Apr.)
Library Journal
The American wife of the British minister in Paris, Clare Moorhouse is suddenly tasked with hosting a dinner that could have profound consequences for her husband's career. She manages with her usual aplomb, even as she frets about her younger son, who seems to have committed a serious offense at his school back in England. More troubling is the thought of her husband's probable next posting to Ireland, a place she has avoided for decades because of some transgression in her youth. As the story unfolds, we learn that this transgression was not mild; during her college years, she had become involved with Niall, an aunt's "charity case" over from Ireland, and his violent opposition to the continuing British presence in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, a French politician has been assassinated, and Clare continues prodding her injured conscience when she realizes that she saw the suspected killer far from the site of the crime. VERDICT Moving between the starched-napkin ambience of high-level diplomacy and urgent questions of revolutionary activity, this engaging debut novel gently probes both without forcing insurmountable choices on its characters. Good for reading groups.—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780316196734
  • Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
  • Publication date: 7/2/2013
  • Pages: 304

Meet the Author

Anne Korkeakivi was born and raised in New York City but currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with her husband, who works at the United Nations, and two daughters. She has also lived in France, Finland, and a number of states in the Union, accumulating a B.A. in Classics and an M.A. in English and Comparative Literature. Her short stories have run in The Yale Review, The Atlantic, The Bellevue Literary Review, and other magazines.

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