Customer Reviews

A Broad Abroad: The Expat Wife's Guide to Successful Living Abroad

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're an expat wife from the US, Canada or England whose husband's company is sending him on assignment to a metropolitan area where he will be a mid-to-high level representative, or is a diplomat (of some stripe!) and you will be making the same wage (or possibly adjusted up!) for the assignment: this book is for you.

If you're an expat wife whose husband has picked up either a freelance job overseas in developed country like America, Canada or the UK, will be on the lower end of the totem pole, you'll be making local wage, or not in a metro: pick it up from your library instead.

Much of the advice here is targeted towards women with children whose husbands will make the same wage at home, and advice about taking time for yourself is important - but for spouses like myself who live on local wage over 6 hours away from a local metropolitan area, and have no children, this book is significantly less relevant. It's a useful overview of the sorts of experiences an expat wife may face, but everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt - they simply aren't viable, or reasonable expectations, for everyone going abroad. If I had one of the maids that the author portrays as nearly-necessary and utterly pervasive, my husband and I would be shelling out nearly 1/3 of his monthly salary to pay wages for someone else.

A book about the culture of your new host country, combined with a book on cultural adjustment and relocation, would stand you in equal stead with this text - and be significantly more specific. Pascoe does a disservice to the reader in her generalization to meet all readers; it is also focused towards individuals moving from the West, rather than an individual coming from a developing country (where they may very well speak English as one of the official languages) to one of the major developed nations.

In sum: Good one-time read, great for borrowing from the library, but the information in it is rather targeted and much of it may be irrelevant for your situation.

If I've said it once, I've said to every expat I know--Buy the Expat Expert's books!

When this book was originally written, the word 'expatriate' was not even in my vocabulary. After having spent nearly half of my life outside my native country, I'm so thankful to Robin Pascoe for putting this book back in print. It's full of timeless advice that trailing wives, expat mothers, and global broads everywhere will take to heart for years to come.

I'm under 30 and married with no kids, and I found this book to be geared towards women who are traveling with a successful husband. There are chapters on dealing with nannies and maids... I just skipped them. Also, there seemed to be negativity or bitterness throughout as if writing the book just reminded her of the hardships of going abroad. If you're already nervous this book won't help that, but will point you to some other books and websites that are useful...

Yes, much of the book is common sense, but it completely lifted me out of a funk that had gone on for three months after moving to our first post. Before reading the book, I looked around at the other trailing spouses here and thought I was so out of place-- everyone was primped, elegant, had it together. The book helped me realize that I wasn't alone, and that I wasn't the first person ever to freak out. It helped me put words to the emotions I was going to, which then helped me talk about them with my partner. Before, I couldn't even articulate what was wrong and my partner watched helplessly as I went through my meltdown. The book helped me identify that larger community of women who are going through this kind of adjustment, and helped me push through the transition period once and for all. THANK YOU!

If you're a trailing spouse (or accompanying partner, or whatever term you prefer) or planning to be one, read this book! Even after four international moves, and as the editor of an expat women's magazine ([...]), I still found Robin's latest book both helpful and comforting. This lifestyle offers great adventures and opportunities, but also unique challenges. No matter how many times one survives a move or acclimates to a new city/country, just when you think you've mastered the art of relocation, a new challenge springs up and throws you for a loop. Reading this book--along with all of her others--will help you keep things in perspective. You'll laugh and nod along with Robin's mistakes and adventures, and you'll learn practical tips for thriving as a trailing spouse. Buy it and read it right away.