Safe Conduct
by By Benedict, Elizabeth
Category: Fiction , General

Elizabeth Benedict's last novel, The Beginner's Book of Dreams, was hailed by Anne Tyler as "a wonderful book ... complex, fascinating ... a joy to read" (Chicago Tribune). Her new novel, Safe Conduct, is a harrowing exploration of trust and deception between men and women in the midst of the Cold War and at the heart of a marriage.Filmmaker Kate Lurie and her new husband, Eli MacKenzie, stop in Brussels, en route to Istanbul to finish making a movie, when out of Mac's past comes Lida, a stunning, determined Russian woman with whom he had an illicit affair while a diplomat in Leningrad fifteen years earlier. Lida's surprise appearance following the collapse of the Soviet empire, her shocking revelations about her relationship with Mac, and her brazen pursuit of him force Kate to confront the truth about her marriage, herself, and her husband's lost son.Kate narrates the story with a filmmaker's sharp eye and the intriguing sensibility of a cool headed, strong-willed woman whose confidence is slowly unraveled by Lida's familiarity and her husband's increasing distance. An exquisitely choreographed novel about first passion and missing children, about the complex burdens of love, lust, and memory, Safe Conduct confirms Elizabeth Benedict's reputation as a brilliant portraitist of broken families and "an enormously talented writer" (Philadelphia Inquirer).