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Arts & Entertainment

Susi Wyss reads from "The Civilized World" at The Ivy Bookshop

The Civilized World is a novel in stories set in Africa and the United States that follows two Ghanaian and three American women as their lives intersect in unexpected and sometimes explosive ways.

     -When Adjoa leaves Ghana to find work in Ivory Coast, she hopes that one day she’ll return home to open a beauty parlor. Her dream comes true, though not before she suffers a devastating loss—one that will haunt her for years, and one that also deeply affects Janice, an American aid worker who no longer feels she has a place to call home. While Adjoa puts her attention into opening the Precious Brother Salon, Janice meets Ophelia, the wife of an American diplomat, who, unlike Janice, doesn’t see the charm of living in Africa. Once Adjoa opens her bustling salon, it’s not just the “cleanest, friendliest, and most welcoming in the city,” it’s also where locals catch up on their gossip; where Comfort, an imperious busybody, can complain about her American daughter-in-law, Linda; and where Adjoa can get a fresh start on life—or so she thinks, until Janice moves to Ghana and unexpectedly stumbles upon the salon. (summary from Holt)

Susi Wyss’s fiction is influenced by her twenty-year career managing women’s health programs in Africa, where she lived for more than eight years. The Civilized World is her first book. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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