American Romantic - Paperback

by Ward Just (Author)

Ward Just is both a writer s writer and an astute tracker of human souls under duplicity and duress . . . "American Romantic," his eighteenth, is one of his finest. Gail Godwin, "New York Times Book Review"

Front Jacket

From American master Ward Just, an evocative portrait of diplomacy and desire set against the backdrop of America's first lost war
"These events happened a while back, when the war was not quite a war, more a prelude to a war . . . The war is the least of the story that follows.
Harry Sanders, a young foreign service officer in 1960s Indochina, is drawn to the unstable in his work and in women. A clandestine meeting with insurgents ends in quiet disaster. And soon a brief but passionate encounter with Sieglinde, an alluring German adventuress, sends his life spinning along a path not entirely unforeseen.
Haunted by his misstep and reeling from Sieglinde's sudden departure, Harry returns briefly to Washington before eventual assignments in South America, Africa, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans. He marries the captivating May, who is fleeing her own disappointments in worn-out upper New England and looking for an escape into Harry's diplomatic milieu. They seem a handsome, successful couple, but Harry, with his unruly passion for the past, cannot forget Sieglinde and the war. And May has her own secrets, too. As Harry navigates the treacherous waters of diplomacy in an age of interminable conflict, he must bridge the distances between him and the two provocative women who have chosen to love him.
Ward Just, returning to his trademark territory of Forgetfulness and The Weather in Berlin, delivers a compelling love story of Americans abroad, trying to run the world yet unable to master their own lives.
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Back Jacket

Ward Just is both a writer s writer and an astute tracker of human souls under duplicity and duress . . . American Romantic, his eighteenth, is one of his finest. Gail Godwin, New York Times Book Review

Harry Sanders is a young Foreign Service officer in 1960s Indochina when a dangerous and clandestine meeting with insurgents ending in quiet disaster and a brief but passionate encounter with Sieglinde, a young German woman, alter the course of his life.

Absorbing the impact of his misstep, Harry returns briefly to Washington before eventual assignments in Africa, Scandinavia, and the Mediterranean. He marries the captivating May, who is fleeing her own family disappointments in worn-out upper New England and looking for an escape into Harry s diplomatic life. On the surface, they are a handsome, successful couple but the memory of Sieglinde persists in Harry s thoughts, and May has her own secrets too. As Harry navigates the increasingly treacherous waters of diplomacy in an age of interminable conflict, he also tries to narrow the distance between himself and the two alluring women who have chosen to love him.

Wise and elegiac recognition of the fading of American confidence and competence in ordering an unruly world . . . a sly parable of loss. Wall Street Journal

An introspective novel . . . Wide-ranging and well-written, it may be Just s finest work to date. Christian Science Monitor

[AU PHOTO] WARD JUST is the author of seventeen previous novels, including Forgetfulness, the National Book Award finalist Echo House, A Dangerous Friend, winner of the Cooper Prize for fiction from the Society of American Historians, and An Unfinished Season, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize."

Author Biography

WARD JUST's seventeen previous novels include Forgetfulness, the National Book Award finalist Echo House, A Dangerous Friend, winner of the Cooper Prize for fiction from the Society of American Historians, and An Unfinished Season, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.