A story of foreigners in a foreign land, tragedy, guilt, redemption, growing up, growing older, and motherhood. Overall I liked it. I had to take a break from the audio at work because I felt the tears coming. ( )

4.5. I really enjoyed this book and the lives of Mercy, Hilary and Margaret. I love how she wove them together with Hong Kong in the background and I loved the ending of this book. ( )

2.5 stars ( )

I quite enjoyed this look at three expatriate American women in Hong Kong. Margaret, a trailing wife (so called because she's trailed behind Clarke, her husband who is working there) with their three children. Hilary, an independently wealthy trailing wife of David, a corporate attorney. Mercy is the third woman, a single twenty-something Columbia grad who has been aimless and continues to be hapless on the periphery of this group. Their lives were intertwined well and while I often was frustrated with them, I still found them all interesting to read about. I won't give spoilers here because they're worth reading but I do have to say that one character's lack of an actual name did niggle at me and threw me out of the story each time I came across it. There was never any explanation given for this circumstance so I didn't know if the character really had that as a name as no one else did or if the author had done it for a specific reason or if there was some sort of cultural hint I was missing that the reference was done as a nod too.

It was a lot more sad than I'd expected and I have to say that I wholly disagree with a blurb I'd read that mentioned it was funny. The epilogue was totally saccharine but but I really didn't need that for a satisfying end, in fact, it diminished the story a bit for me. Sometimes you need just to skip epilogues. I definitely recommend reading this one. ( )

The Expatriates follows three American women, Mercy, Margaret, and Hilary, who live in an insulated social circle in Hong Kong. Mercy is a young Korean-American woman who has been trying to make a
new start in Hong Kong for three years. She is having trouble finding a steady job and knows that she's always been “unlucky.” Margaret is a rich housewife whose life revolves around her kids, her husband, and a small number of friends. When we meet Mercy and Margaret we know they are connected by something tragic, but we don't know what it is. In Part Two we meet Hilary. Hilary and her husband, David, have been in Hong Kong for eight years, and she has been trying to become pregnant ever since their arrival. Her relationship with David is mostly indifferent, but she's hoping an adopted child will help.

Their individual and connecting stories are told by all three women in alternating chapters. Even though they are all on different paths and dealing with different crises, they suffer a similar hopelessness and loneliness. One of the best parts of the book is watching the lives of Mercy, Margaret and Hilary converge and change. I thought the characters were imperfect in a realistic way. I didn't like everything about the women but I felt their stories were interesting and the resolution was satisfying. I've never read the author's debut novel, the Piano Teacher, but I've now added it to my TBR.
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