The Confusion of Languages

For fans of Notes on a Scandal and Janice Y. K. Lee's The Expatriates, a taut and intimate debut novel from Siobhan Fallon, award-winning author of You Know When the Men Are Gone, about jealousy, the unpredictable path of friendship, and the secrets kept in a marriage, all set against the U.S. military community in the Middle East.
 
I'll just read a little bit, I tell myself. And really, why shouldn't I?

Both Cassie Hugo and Margaret Brickshaw dutifully followed their soldier husbands to the U.S. embassy in Jordan, but that's about all the women have in common. After two years, Cassie's an expert on the rules of the Middle East. For newly arrived Margaret, the move is a chance to see the world and explore. Against the odds the two strike up a friendship, until their husbands deploy and Cassie senses her new friend pulling away.

So when a fender-bender supposedly sends Margaret to the local police station, Cassie remains alone in the Brickshaw apartment to watch over Margaret's toddler son. But with Margaret missing for hours, Cassie becomes bored and soon frustrated, tired of being left behind while Margaret adventures. Then she discovers her friend's journal. Where could Margaret be? Could her diary reveal the secrets that have come between them?

Written with stunning prose and powerful emotional insight, here is a story of two unforgettable women and the choices each will make in friendship, in marriage, and in love. The Confusion of Languages offers a poignant glimpse into the private lives of husbands, wives, and American military families living overseas.

Siobhan Fallon is the author of You Know When the Men Are Gone, which won the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Fiction, the Indies Choice Honor Award, and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for First Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post Magazine, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Military Spouse, The Huffington Post, and NPR’s Morning Edition, among others. She and her family moved to Jordan in 2011, and they currently live in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.