It’s a Lot to Unpack

In this humorous and tender memoir, Honour (There’s Some Place Like Home) recounts her life as a reluctant expat in Europe. New York City and “my personality were so co-dependent that I had no idea where it ended and I began,” Honour writes, recalling her shock at her husband’s proposal that they move with their two kids from Brooklyn to Cyprus for his work in 2008. At the time, Honour had lived in New York for 20 years, and she feared what she’d find if she had to reexamine her sense of self. But the offer was a “career unicorn” for her husband, so she agreed to pack up. Honour writes with quick wit and bruised candor about her rocky first few months in Cyprus, during which she moped and struggled to adapt to the relaxed pace of life. Then, with equal panache, Honour illustrates how, as her husband’s work whisked them to Copenhagen and then Berlin, she learned to extricate her self-worth from being a “New Yorker” or an “expat,” and came to appreciate the resilience that the family’s new lifestyle fostered in her and her children. This will resonate with anyone who’s had to redefine themselves under unexpected circumstances. (Self-published)