Dear Ms. Dawson,
More than 100,000 Russian and Ukrainian women advertise themselves on matchmaking sites like A Foreign Affair to find an American husband. Are these women sincere or scammers? Brave or crazy? Moonlight in Odessa tells the tale of one woman who risks everything for love – and a green card.
Daria, an intelligent, beautiful Ukrainian, can’t get ahead. A few years after perestroika, her country is still in shambles – and so is her love life. She works hard to take care of herself and the grandmother who raised her, while dreaming of love and security. Daria’s dated her share of Ukrainian men and she meets many Americans through her job at Soviet Unions, a matchmaking agency that organizes socials for lonely Western men and desperate Eastern European women. Daria’s narrowed the list to two contenders and must choose between her world and America, between Vlad, a sexy, irresponsible mobster, and Tristan, a gentle teacher nearly twice her age. Daria chooses security and America. Only it’s not exactly what she thought it would be…
Moonlight in Odessa will appeal to readers who enjoy novels such as The Kite Runner and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. Like these two bestsellers, it deals with relationships, cultural perceptions, and coming of age – at any age. The word count is 100,000.
The novel is based on my knowledge of the matchmaking trade and my experience as a Soros Fellow in the former Soviet Union. I lived in Odessa, Ukraine for two years. The subject of e-mail order brides fascinates me because several Ukrainian friends married Westerners they barely knew to escape poverty. While in college, I translated letters from Russian women and saw the marriages that came of the correspondence. Currently, I work as a freelance editor and lead creative writing workshops in Paris. I spent three years on the editorial board of Parisian literary journal Pharos.
I look forward to meeting you at the Geneva Writers’ Conference. I hope that you enjoy the chapters and that I will hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Janet Skeslien Charles