{"product_id":"the-english-understand-wool-9780811230070","title":"The English Understand Wool","description":"\u003cem\u003eMaman was exigeante--there is no English word-and I had the benefit of her training. Others may not be so fortunate. If some other young girl, with two million dollars at stake, finds this of use I shall count myself justified.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid \u003cem\u003emauvais ton\u003c\/em\u003e (\"bad taste\" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge's, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite, so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests. One should cultivate weavers of tweed in the Outer Hebrides but have the cloth made up in London; one should buy linen in Ireland but have it made up by a Thai seamstress in Paris (whose genius has been supported by purchase of suitable premises). All this and much more she has learned, governed by a parent of ferociously lofty standards. But at 17, during the annual Ramadan travels, she finds all assumptions overturned. Will she be able to fend for herself? Will the dictates of good taste suffice when she must deal, singlehanded, with the sharks of New York?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDeWitt, Helen:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eHelen DeWitt\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in a suburb of Washington, DC. Daughter of American diplomats, she grew up mainly in Latin America, living in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. She went to Oxford to study classics for a BA and D.Phil. She left academia to try to write a novel, moving eventually to London and acquiring UK citizenship. She had some 100 fragments of novels when she began work in 1995 on the novel that was published as \u003cem\u003eThe Last Samurai\u003c\/em\u003e in 2000. The book caused a sensation at the Frankfurt Bookfair 1999, going on to be translated in 20 languages (DeWitt reads some 15 languages to various degrees of fluency). On the reissue of \u003cem\u003eThe Last Samurai\u003c\/em\u003e by New Directions in 2016 it was hailed by \u003cem\u003eVulture Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e as The Best Book of the Century. She is also the author of \u003cem\u003eLightning Rods\u003c\/em\u003e, a Mel Brooksian satire on sexual harassment, and \u003cem\u003eSome Trick\u003c\/em\u003e, a collection of stories. She has been based in Berlin since 2004, but also spends time at a cottage in the woods of Vermont improving her chainsaw skills. \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50574399668498,"sku":"9780811230070","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e8e3fd92-cc2d-4c7e-ba08-d4bfd7fa3950.jpg?v=1731973143","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-english-understand-wool-9780811230070","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}