The Confusion of Languages by Siobhan Fallon: A Review

Cassie is living with her husband, Dan, in Amman while he works.  She has been looking forward to adding to her family with Dan but the couple have failed to conceive, thus far.  When Margaret and her husband move to the embassy, Cassie and Dan are asked to be their sponsors, showing them around and helping them adjust to life in a foreign country.  When Margaret gets into a fender-bender and must go to the police station to fill out paperwork, Cassie agrees to watch Margaret's baby, Mather.  After Margaret does not show up for hours, Cassie becomes worried and begins to read Margaret's journal to gain insight into the mind of her new friend.  Margaret is more of a mystery to Cassie than she realized.

Cassie is a bit annoying.  She is so cautious that she comes off as culturally insensitive.  She assumes that all of the men in Jordan wish her harm and all of the women are judging her for not being conservative enough.  Margaret is more open-minded and caring about others, regardless of their nationality.  Margaret may be a little too trusting but she does so with the aim of being kind to other people.  This book was really interesting and unique but could be slow, at times.  Rarely have a I read a book about living in an embassy in another country from the perspective of the wives, though.  I really appreciated that angle and the story kept me moving along.  The writing was interesting but the constant references to the origin and definition of words quickly turned from interesting to annoying.  Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  It is a great work of Women's Fiction with a bit of multiculturalism thrown in and any reader who enjoys books like that will enjoy this book.

My rating:
★★★★☆

Reviews of books like this one:
Best Intentions by Erika Raskin
You Were Here by Gian Sardar
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

This book will be available on June 27, 2017 and can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Read more reviews on this book on Goodreads. 

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