Download The Woman Upstairs AudioBook Free

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor's Children, a brilliant new book: the riveting confession of a female awakened, transformed, and betrayed by interest and desire to have a world beyond her own. Nora Eldridge, a 37-year-old elementary school educator in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who long ago deserted her ambition to be a successful artist, is among the most "female upstairs", a trusted good friend and tidy neighbor always on the fringe of others' successes. Then into her school room strolls Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as though from a fairy tale. He and his parents - dashing Skandar, a Lebanese scholar and professor at the École Normale Supérleure; and Sirena, an simply glamorous Italian artist - have come to Boston for Skandar to take up a fellowship at Harvard. When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies who call him a "terrorist" Nora is drawn into the complex world of the Shahid family: She finds herself falling deeply in love with them, separately and collectively. Nora's joy explodes her restrictions, until Sirena's careless ambition causes a shattering betrayal. Informed with urgency, intimacy, and piercing sentiment, this story of obsession and creative fulfillment explores the buzz - and the damaging cost - of presenting directly into one's passions.

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