In Pursuit of Disobedient Women: A Memoir of Love, Rebellion, and Family, Far Away

Journalist Searcey trades the subway for the sub-Sahara in this intense account of balancing work and family as West Africa bureau chief for the New York Times from 2015 to 2019. Just as her husband Todd was urging a move from Brooklyn to the suburbs to reduce stress in their dual-career household, Searcy accepted the bureau position and opted instead for a gated villa in the seaside city of Dakar, Senegal, a staff of four, and private school for their children. Once settled, the disparity between old and new lives hit her: “Here, in an instant, we had become superrich people.” The constant travel in reporting on 25 countries of West and Central Africa made family life difficult: when her elementary-school age daughter wrote in an essay, “There is no peace at this place,” she was floored: “Were we crazy trying to pull this off?” Always hoping for a front-page story and that “my work could be a force for good,” Among other stories, Searcey reported on Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group responsible for kidnapping more than 250 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, in 2014. Searcey is a straightforward narrator, especially as she describes turning down the Paris bureau chief position in order to return her family to the U.S. (“I had carted [Todd] across the world and in some ways abandoned him”). Readers will enjoy this earnest look at life as a newspaper bureau chief.[em] (Mar.) [/em]