Synopses & Reviews
CHARLOTTE SANDERS, a precocious American girl growing up in Paris in the late 1970s, leads a charmed life. But her idyllic childhood is turned upside down when her mother, Astrid, has an affair and the family is shattered. Leaving her sister in Paris, Charlotte follows Astrid to New York. There, in the shadow of her glamorous and erratic mother, Charlotte has to negotiate her path to womanhood, eventually living through her own unhappy love affair and returning to a Europe that has been reshaped by the downfall of Communism.
At once a coming-of-age story and meditation on cultural identity, Dreaming in French is an enchanting portrayal of the challenges of adolescence and an honest account of one girl’s discovery that where we come from makes us who we are.
Review
“McAndrew’s novel brings an original sensibility as well as a plot that takes satisfying, unexpected turns.”
--The New York Times
Review
"Beneath the surface of this swift, bracing comedy of manners runs a current of genuine heartbreak as a daughter tries and tries to know her unknowable mother. McAndrew's style is irresistible." -- Susanna Sonnenberg, author of Her Last Death
Review
“McAndrew can do cross-cultural humor with the flair of Diane Johnson, but she also has her own kind of sophistication—an international knowingness coupled with an American practicality.”
--The New York Times
Review
"Light as an éclair, but satisfying as a bowl of cassoulet, Dreaming in French is a rich, wise, and deeply generous novel." -- Yona Zeldis McDonough, author of The Four Temperaments and Breaking the Bank
Review
“A sophisticated coming-of-age story.”
--Daily Candy
Review
“McAndrew's casual but assured depictions of life among the upper crust of Paris and New York and wry voice, make this coming-of-age novel a delectable treat.
--Publishers Weekly
Review
“McAndrew has immense talent for calling up vastly different settings in precise detail, and her observations, as realized by her clear-eyed protagonist, are deliciously sharp-edged. Dense with context and deeply nuanced, yet effortlessly readable. McAndrew is a real find.”
--Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
A captivating coming-of-age story about a precocious young woman living in Paris and New York and discovering how to love and be loved.
About the Author
Megan McAndrew is herself the daughter of expatriates. She grew up in France, Spain and Belgium before attending college in the United States. She worked in Warsaw, Poland, as a representative for the Financial Services Volunteer Corps. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her teenage son.