Foreign Friends

In this paean to New York City, we meet Ashley Hall a rich kid from Connecticut who's always been an oddball with an irreverent sense of humor. Now, she's fed up with everything and everyone. Trapped in an engagement to a reactionary sexist moron, she's itching to bust out of her conformist life in every way.

From sex in the bathrooms to tearful communal hugging in the middle of production meetings, P&P Music Books where Ashley works as an editor, isn't your usual publishing company. Lydia Petrova, a washed-up Russian opera diva is the cheapskate boss that employs a nympho new-age commune to do most of the jobs, while she terrorizes the employees.

Enter Carlotta, from Advertising. A lesbian amazon with a unique wardrobe, she leaves sensual poems on Ashley's desk and flirts with her in ways that delight and confuse her simultaneously.

There was "no time to be dangerous" in Ashley's upbringing. Now, as she tries to balance on a tightrope between several different worlds, she craves major change. A budding social justice conscience pushes her to want to aid those in need and make a significant difference.

But how does the voice on the phone know this? A mysterious late-night call leads Ashley to unexpected involvement with a group of Central American revolutionaries. One thing leads to another and all hell--as well as hysterically outrageous comedy!--breaks loose.

Set entirely in 1987, this novel is as funny as it gets, because it's deadly serious about what's wrong with the upper class and conventional mindsets. As supreme comedian Mel Brooks has said: "Comedy is protest."

Both Ashley and the guerrillas are fighting for their lives, their true identities, and their freedom. Can they help each other toward victory?

Author: Lia Giannakis
Publisher: Bookbaby
Published: 02/14/2023
Pages: 292
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.60h x 6.20w x 1.30d
ISBN13: 9781667873435
ISBN10: 1667873431
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Coming of Age

About the Author
Lia Giannakis is a first-generation Greek-American who lived in New York City for ten years, where she worked in publishing. As a journalist, in 1984 she traveled to Nicaragua to cover the Sandinista revolution. Passionate about social justice and systemic change, she considers it part of her mission in life to make people laugh. Lia believes that finding humor in everyday events helps keep one's sanity in a world gone mad.