Jennifer Artley is a talented author who has experienced many travel adventures starting at an early age, raised by US diplomats posting in far-flung countries.
Her rich history and experience living overseas has informed and influenced her writings, which often explore different cultures and cuisines and the intersections found when living the life of adventure.
Jennifer has published two books and writes for three blogs on different topics.
Jennifer divides her time between Alexandria, Virginia and Milan, Italy.
Improvising in Italian
In 2017 Jennifer and her husband Michael relocated to a small town in the north of Italy, immersing themselves in Italian culture and cuisine-passionate about food quality and regional recipes-while making close friendships with an eclectic group of Italians and expats. As the couple involves themselves in local projects and struggles to build their Italian dreamlife, they navigate through the country’s notoriously corrupt bureaucracy, leaving them feeling frustrated and powerless. When Michael’s venture in Italy collapses, the couple pursues a series of business deals involving everything from premier Italian football clubs and classic Ferraris to Stradivarius violins, leading them on crazy misadventures, encountering outlandish and colorful characters across the peninsula. Out of the blue, a strange new virus spreads like wildfire and Italy is at the epicenter. This prompts one of the strictest lockdowns in world history, and Jennifer and Michael are brought to the brink of personal and financial ruin, culminating in an unexpected twist of fate.
Improvising in Italian, narrated with candor and humor, is an honest appraisal of the romance and pitfalls of being a global nomad in a fast-changing world. It follows the couple as they survive missteps and setbacks-while struggling to maintain their love and friendship-improvising their way through it all.
Published by Köehler Books
Available for pre-order at:
Hard Sleeper
Innocent and headstrong, Jane McPherson, the daughter of an American missionary couple, enjoys an idyllic childhood in Old Peking – the “lingering city of splendor” – until her parents are brutally murdered. In 1936, with the onset of war against Japan and fighting between the Kuomintang and communist forces, Jane and her brother, Will, are sent to live with lifelong family friends in Shanghai. There, Jane is forced to contend with long-buried family secrets, unfulfilled romance, and expulsion from her beloved country.
Now elderly, Jane has returned to China and reunited with the daughter she hasn’t seen in more than sixty years. During a cross-country train ride to Beijing, Jane unravels the mystery of her parents’ death for her daughter and an ambitious young documentary film producer who gains a new perspective on her own life as she watches mother and daughter struggle to know and understand one another. An unforgettable mystery adventure spanning more than six decades of Chinese culture and history, Hard Sleeper is a story of unconquerable spirit, set against the background of the Sino-Japanese War and the emerging realities of post-Mao China.
Read Jennifer’s Other Writings
Check out Jennifer Artley’s other writings on her blogs
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