Happily married and living in Venice Beach, California, television executive Julia Elliott's orderly life collapses when her husband is sent to Brazil for a two-year assignment by his company. Knowing that she will not be rehired once she leaves her job, she nevertheless agrees to follow him to the land of sunshine, tropical fruit and string bikinis.
But on arrival in São Paulo, Julia is shocked to discover that the city is marred by chaotic traffic, pollution, endemic graffiti and appalling slums. This is not the exotic paradise she envisioned.
As her husband works the long hours typical of American businessmen in São Paulo, their marital relationship frays; and remembering warnings about glamorous, seductive Brazilian women, Julia becomes concerned about her husband's late nights and weekends at the office.
Is her husband having an affair with his gorgeous secretary? And how does Julia really feel about Max Calhoun, the married, off-beat minister that she's met at an ex-pat theatrical group she joins?
Passion Fruit explores the personal and social lives of ex-pat wives following their husbands along the path of international business: the challenges are momentous, and the consequences of bad decisions are life-changing. Yet through it all another Julia emerges, and the 'other Julia' is indeed a pièce de résistance.
About the Author: Sandra Cuza was born in Kansas and raised in Los Angeles. After graduating with a BA from Mills College, she moved to London where she lived for nine years and worked as a reader for CBS films, a waitress, an actress in food commercials and a teacher in a state school for maladjusted youths. Her first book was based on the latter experience and was made into a feature film which she co-wrote, launching her career as a writer.
Two more novels were published on her return to California where she worked as a waitress, earned an MA and devised and taught a Creative Writing course at UCLA. After moving to São Paulo, Brazil twenty one years ago, she condensed the UCLA course and taught it annually under both the auspices of the American Society and São Paulo´s largest language school. She wrote articles, short stories and a cookbook of Brazilian recipes, was on the Board of a Brazilian children's charity and was active in the community affairs section of the American Society.
She has lived in Orleans, France, for the past year.
