Expat Women: Confessions by Andrea Martins and Victoria Hepworth
In Expat Women: Confessions – 50 Answers to Your Real-Life Questions about Living Abroad, Andrea Martins and Victoria Hepworth share heaps of advice based on what they’ve learned throughout their years as expats themselves.
The questions answered in the book come directly from fellow women expats and include subjects like culture shock, managing cultural differences, leaving family and friends behind, divorce, adultery, and raising bilingual children. The book is broken down into distinctive chapters such as “Career and Money,” “Raising Children,” and “Repatriation, which makes it easy to flip to the section(s) you’re most concerned with at any given time.
The friendly, conversational tone makes it seems like you really are getting advice from a girlfriend — and sometimes that’s exactly what a confused, stressed, or downright lonely expat needs. I appreciate as well that the answers don’t come across as judgmental or in any way imply that the person asking is experiencing abnormal feelings; indeed, one of the most important lessons carried throughout this book is that if you’re feeling a certain way as an expat, chances are good that somewhere, someone else has felt the same.
One word of caution: I felt like a majority of the issues discussed are from the perspective of a trailing spouse and/or married expat as opposed to a single woman moving abroad for her own reasons, by choice. If you fall into the latter category, then, I’m not sure you’ll get *as much* benefit from the book.
That said, there are still plenty of solid, helpful tips for how to manage many aspects of moving abroad — and you never know when sections that don’t apply to you now might in the future — so I do recommend Expat Women: Confessions to any woman considering becoming an expat and also to current expats who could use encouragement, support, and a gentle reminder that you’re not alone.
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One Bean of Wisdom to “Expat Women: Confessions by Andrea Martins and Victoria Hepworth”
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Thanks so much Michelle for making the time to read this book and blog some honest feedback. We really appreciate wonderful expat women like you – and say a sincere ‘thank you’! Andrea 🙂
My pleasure Andrea! You’ve created a great resource and should be very proud 🙂