Borderlines Review

I adored this book. From the preview of Paula's international foible to the details about the lawyers' motivations and weaknesses, the book rang true to me. I found the interweaving of the political/international arbitration story line and Paula's flashbacks of her love life very well timed. Both story lines held my interest. Despite the fictional country, the political and moral conundrums in the book really happen in our world, and real people struggle in the absence of easy answers. Paula's dark sense of humor made me smile, and I must admit I loved the bits about her former New York lawyer fashion sensibilities.

I have spent time in Ethiopia near the Eritrean border, but I have never been to Lira (wink wink), so this book provided me with a vicarious adventure, peopled with textured and engaging characters, backed by a really substantive legal issue and fascinating moral questions. I think expanding a reader's life experience and a reader's perspective is one of the best and highest purposes of fiction. This piece of fiction delivers on that promise.