Dispatch From the Field: "David Leavitt's novel is well-paced, funny, sexy, and at times sad. Although his characters are in a very unique situation, he brings out the universal humanity in their story." ~Joe

It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon, Portugal, is the only neutral port left in Europe—a city filled with spies, crowned heads, and refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until their escape. Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual anxieties of their class. As Portugal’s neutrality, and the world’s future, hang in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these four characters—Julia’s status as a Jew, Pete and Edward’s improbable affair, Iris’s increasingly desperate efforts to save her tenuous marriage—begin to come loose.
Gorgeously written, sexually and politically charged, David Leavitt’s long-awaited new novel is an extraordinary work.

Joe says:
"The latest from David Leavitt came out in paperback this year, and it is a book you don't want to miss. This is the story of two couples, displaced by the advancing Nazis to Lisbon, Portugal. Both couples are waiting for safe passage to New York. Pete and Julia Winters are Americans who were living in Paris, and Edward and Iris Freleng are wealthy bohemians. The two couples meet at a streetside cafe, and we follow the impact of their meeting through the eyes of Pete. Lisbon in 1940 was a city brimful of spies, expatriots, and refugees, biding their time waiting to leave by drinking and intrigue. This is a lively, sexy novel with lots of tableside drama as well as a dizzying affair in a city none of the characters really knows. 

Displaced, the characters' lives in this kind of situation takes on a new set of rules, at times thrilling and other times horrifying. David Leavitt's novel is well-paced, funny, sexy, and at times sad. Although his characters are in a very unique situation, he brings out the universal humanity in their story. This is not a novel easily forgotten, thankfully."