I just finished reading Moonlight in Odessa, the first novel by American-born Paris expat  Janet Skeslien Charles.

Most Anglophone writers in Paris know Janet from the famous Shakespeare & Company bookstore, where she has taught a writing workshop for several years. As one of her former students I was thrilled to hear about her published book. And like a new baby or Beaujolais Nouveau, everyone celebrates the arrival, and it isn’t important whether it’s any good.

But of course Moonlight in Odessa is not just good, it’s hard to put down! Here is the back cover description:

After months of searching, twenty-three-year-old Daria, armed with perfect English and an engineering degree, finds a job at a big foreign company in Odessa. Unfortunately, her boss makes it clear that sleeping with him is the first item on her to-do list.

Daria evades his advances by setting him up with her neighbor, the slippery Olga. But soon Olga sets her sights on Daria’s job, and Daria finds herself moonlighting as an interpreter at Soviet Unions, a matchmaking agency. As she bridges the language gaps between desperate Odessa women and lonely foreign men, Daria finds herself tempted by the American Dream, and faces the choice between her beloved city and the West, between a sexy, irresponsible mobster and a gentle teacher.

Exploring the booming business of email-order brides, an industry where love and marriage collise with sex and money, Moonlight in Odessa is a darkly humorous debut about the choices and sacrifices we make in pursuit of love and stability, and the lengths we will go to for a happy ending.

Of course, there is a twist. More than one! But without giving too much of the story away I can say that what impressed me the most was how the characters acted illogically at times. Some critics say that you can’t create a smart, independent woman and then have her act in a silly, irresponsible way. Au contraire!

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