Passports: Atlantic Lives, 1994-1995

YOU NEVER KNOW who is going to walk through that door. . . .

"I'm from France. Have you been there?"

"Sorry, I haven't," he admitted, reminding himself also that breathing is supposed to be a reflex action. "I've never been to Europe."

"Don't apologize. When they do go, Americans always like to go first to England. I understand why they do. I've been there," she noted.

He kidded her. "You must know the English like us better?"

She smiled slyly. "Why do you think French people don't like you?". . . .

Twenty-nine year old James sees his suburban New York routine upended when 24 year old Isabelle sits in front of him the first day in their University of Long Island history class. Isabelle's interest in America catches James off guard; Frenchwomen like Isabelle, he had thought, did not exist. In turn, Isabelle comes to see James as an "authentic" American of the sort she wants to get to know; she is convinced expats and students in Paris are unrepresentative of their fellow citizens at home.

They hit it off immediately. During the next thirteen months lives change profoundly, and theirs are only the beginning. Follow a group of sometimes unlikely international friends as they grow through dealing with what comes their way.

An INTIMATE tale of evolving RELATIONSHIPS in an increasingly GLOBAL world, PASSPORTS will keep you enthralled to the end.

R. J. Nello was born in New York, raised on Long Island, and has lived and traveled in Europe for over two decades.