Photo by Timothy Murphy
2021 Eric Hoffer Book Award
First-Runner Up in General Fiction
A Wife in Bangkok
After moving with her husband and children from a small Oklahoma town to 1975 Thailand, Crystal is confronted with a very different culture and a frightening series of events. She finds beauty in Thailand but also struggles to fight loneliness, depression, and, ultimately, betrayal, even as she tries to be the good wife she thinks she ought to be.
ABOUT IRIS MITLIN LAV
Iris Mitlin Lav grew up in the liberal Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. She went on to earn an MBA from George Washington University and an AB from the University of Chicago, and to enjoy a long career of public policy analysis and management, with an emphasis on improving policies for low- and moderate-income families. She also taught public finance at Johns Hopkins University and George Mason University, and in 1999 received the Steven D. Gold award for contributions to state and local fiscal policy, an award jointly given by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Tax Association. Gitel’s Freedom is her second novel; her first, A Wife in Bangkok, was published in 2020 by She Writes Press. Lav and her husband now live in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with Mango, their goldendoodle, and grandchildren nearby.
