Girl Abroad

Whitney Parker is a 20-year-old college student taking a year abroad in Europe--she's thrilled to have been given a new French family and to escape the confines of majoring in English Literature at college in Ohio. Root for this underdog as she really tries to learn French well, avoids serious injury on a motorcycle in Corsica, gets lost in the Vatican, considers trick-or-treating dressed as a “tourist,” attends an existentialist play on Christmas Eve, and deconstructs a French pop song about incest. Enjoy as she navigates a burgeoning love affair (but only in her own mind) and a “date” with an actual Frenchman--will she ever find true love? When she moves to London, Whitney finds the perfect setting for an existential crisis, questioning the meaning of life, travel, marriage, sex, and literature.

Through “tell-all” diary entries, and juxtaposed with the literature she is studying (Rimbaud, Flaubert, Tennyson, Orwell, Bertrand Russell), Whitney filters her own questions on relationships, culture, philosophy, and her own future.

When she faces true loss, can she still find her way?

Equal parts Kerouac, Vonnegut, and Bridget Jones’ Diary, Girl Abroad is a provocative coming-of-age story told in a voice you’ll never forget.

(Note: This novel depicts events that occurred in the late 20th century.)