{"product_id":"half-life-9781420537307-new","title":"The Half Life","description":"\"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis large print edition features an easy-to-read larger type size while preserving the complete text of the original edition.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eFlorence Adler Swims Forever\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe House Is on Fire\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel set on a remote Italian island about a navy wife's reckoning with power, love, and the price of staying silent in the Atomic Age.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen twenty-three-year-old Eileen O'Malley meets charismatic naval officer Paul Archer in a Charleston department store, she doesn't expect to fall so hard, so fast. But Paul is funny and ambitious, and soon, Eileen's got a ring on her finger and is following him to the tiny, sun-drenched Mediterranean island of La Maddalena, where Paul will be heading up Radiological Controls aboard a submarine tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn La Maddalena, Eileen joins a makeshift community of navy wives who are hell-bent on making the island feel a little more like home. But for Eileen, whose brother died in Vietnam, \u003ci\u003ehome\u003c\/i\u003e is a loaded word, and as she settles into life on the island--taking Italian lessons and learning to make \u003ci\u003eculurgiones\u003c\/i\u003e--she begins to love the place for all the ways it is not like where she comes from.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eStill, it doesn't take long for Eileen to be confronted with the complexities of being an American abroad. The decision to send nuclear-powered subs into the La Maddalena Archipelago was a contentious one, and the U.S. government is doing whatever it can to ensure that the island--not to mention all of Italy--doesn't go communist in the next election.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Italian activists and scientists begin to sound the alarm about possible nuclear contamination in the water, the island erupts in a series of protests, made worse by the ongoing mishaps of the U.S. Navy. Soon, Eileen's marriage falters and her loyalties begin to shift as she is drawn into a web of secrets--and to a local journalist who forces her to imagine a life beyond the one she's been handed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAtmospheric, sexy, and quietly defiant, \u003ci\u003eThe Half Life\u003c\/i\u003e is a story of love, complicity, and awakening--of one woman forced to choose between loyalty to her husband and country and to the Italian locals who show her the high cost of American exceptionalism.\u003c\/p\u003e\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"YOUTH LARGE PRINT","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":67735907205410,"sku":"9781420537307-new","price":43.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0893\/4755\/5618\/files\/9781420537307.jpg?v=1794082880","url":"https:\/\/www.albakireads.com\/products\/half-life-9781420537307-new","provider":"AlbakiReads","version":"1.0","type":"link"}