When she was just seventeen, independent and ambitious Elizabeth Scarboro fell in love with irreverent and irresistible Stephen. She knew he had cystic fibrosis, that he was expected to live only until the age of thirty or so, and that soon she'd have a choice to make. She could set out to travel, date, and lead the adventurous life she'd imagined, or she could be with Stephen, who came with an urgency of his own. In choosing him, Scarboro embraced another kind of adventure-simultaneously joyous and heartrending-staying with Stephen and building a life in the ten years they'd have together. The illness would be present in the background of their lives and then ever-more-insistently in the foreground.

Beyond the illness, though, is a breathtaking love story. In crystalline prose, Scarboro describes the pulse of her relationship with Stephen with all its illuminating quirks. Like any young couple, they agonize about career choices, attempt ill-fated road trips, bargain about whether to adopt a puppy, and host one memorably disastrous Thanksgiving. They navigate the growing pains of their twenties alongside the twists and turns of life-threatening disease; if their telephone rings at midnight, the caller might be a heartbroken friend, or the hospital offering a new set of lungs. As time goes on and trouble looms, the dangers of Stephen's illness consume her, just as they will consume readers who feel they have come to know this extraordinary couple.

Scarboro tells her story of fierce love and its limitations with humor, grace, and remarkable bravery. My Foreign Cities is a portrait of a young couple approaching mortality with reckless abandon, gleefully outrunning it for as long as they can.

About the Author
Elizabeth Scarboro is the author of two children's novels and a winner of the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize for fiction. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and two children.

Reviews
"Elizabeth Scarboro shows us what those fortunate enough to find the deepest love will do for each other. Her memoir is a moving story that will shine its warm light for anyone navigating the rough country of illness with a partner. With some personal observation of the lay of this land, I will shout out-quality medical insurance for all, in our time!" -- Julie Metz, New York Times bestselling author of Perfection "Her thoughtful memoir takes readers on the beautiful and painful journey of loving someone with a life-threatening illness... Teen readers will enjoy the romance-unsentimentally portrayed-of marrying a childhood sweetheart and the grit of sticking with him through breathing tubes and ventilators." "Scarboro invites us to accompany her on every mile of her joyous, often terrifying, sad and exalted journey of love. A natural storyteller, she brings vividly to life her struggles both to protect Stephen, who has a "lightness about him," and to keep him at her side as long as she can so that they can embrace life to its fullest. She leads us down the path where his medical condition consumes every waking minute of their lives-including a lung transplant, its results and Stephen's eventual decline-and shares her agony, her joy, her anger and her indecision with us." -- Henry L. Carrigan, Jr. "Starred review. With strength and grace ... this book squeezes a soul-encompassing marriage into the events of just one decade."



Book Information
ISBN 9780871407399
Author Elizabeth Scarboro
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 241g
Dimensions(mm) 208mm * 140mm * 20mm