Due to Foreseen Circumstances

This true story is for anyone whose plans have veered alarmingly off-piste. It will make you laugh. It might also make you cry. Jennifer Gardner quickly discovers that going to Hong Kong to live a beautiful and rich new expatriate life is - as the Chinese proverb says - like looking for ivory in a dog's mouth. Her new home, unlike those of her favourite authors, is not Tuscany or Provence. Neither is it toddler-free. She should have seen it coming, really. Enduring extreme heat, isolation and strange expatriates turns out as easy as a snake trying to swallow an elephant. Jen's husband has work problems and the local food, throngs and hospital all intimidate. Jen's cheery resolve, and her health, waver. Then disasters strike. But with them come surprises. Happiness - and hope - hide everywhere. Who can resist a Chinese opera loving taxi driver with eyebrows like blackbird's wings, or dreams that really happen, or an oasis delivered to one's door? Or befriending a wise and magisterial woman who can kill a rat with one stamp of her foot? Due to Foreseen Circumstances celebrates the treasures awaiting us in life's toughest seasons.