October 17, 2006

Foreign Affairs

“The Blue Taxi,” by N.S. Köenings

As a wise man (Ferris Bueller) once said, “Life moves pretty fast.”

This, as you know, can make things utterly exhausting. So it might well be time to take a load off and, from the comfort of your own couch, go cruising with N.S. Köenings’s debut novel, The Blue Taxi.

Köenings (who teaches at Hampshire College) transports you straight to Africa, where you’re introduced to Sarie Turner, a Belgian housewife whose humdrum existence is interrupted after she witnesses a bus accident and starts caring for one of the victims, an injured child. Her visits to check on the boy lead her straight into the arms of his rumored-to-be-crazy, not-so-recently-widowed (and obviously attractive) father.

Does Turner get busted for her extramarital doings? Let’s just say hubby is otherwise preoccupied by unrealistic moneymaking schemes. But the coast isn’t totally clear; nosy neighbors prove more difficult to evade — making the story that much harder to put down.

Afraid you’ll never make it into work? Once again, Bueller had it right.

Take the day off.

Available online at amazon.com.