This is the story of a woman entering a consular career on her own after the death of her Foreign Service officer husband. She describes the consular world with humor, empathy, and anecdotes.
She served for twenty years as a consular officer in four posts, first looking after American hippies in India and after that a huge American business community in Hong Kong. She was principal officer in the Yucatán area of Mexico, then consul general in Bucharest, Romania, before and after a revolution that resulted in the demise of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
"This fine memoir, told with much humor, details the many high points of Young's time abroad and traces her growth from a diplomat's wife to one of the best representatives of the U.S. government."
-JOHN NEEDHAM, former UPI correspondent and L.A. Times reporter and editorial writer
"Wonderfully readable and sharp as a stiletto, Peregrina tells the memorable story of a State Department wife who, after the untimely death of her husband, reinvents herself as an American consul general."
-JOHN POWERS, Movie Critic, Vogue
"Ginny Young emerges as a warm, self-deprecating, thoroughly committed Foreign Service officer whose approach to the world around her is tinged with a keen appreciation of the ridiculous. Her writing style is lively and engaging, strong in the many instances in which her values and opinions emerge."
-BRANDON GROVE, U.S. Ambassador (ret.)
"As unique as its author, this story takes us on a journey that includes the Hill, Africa, Western Europe, India, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Romania during the collapse of the Ceausescu dictatorship, with cameo stops in Haiti and Afghanistan... A must read for anyone who may doubt the importance and variety of consular work, the "human face" of the Foreign Service."
-NICHOLAS VELIOTES, U.S. Ambassador (ret.)
"Anyone would be lucky to lead a life as full and meaningful as Ginny Carson Young's. Even more, we would be lucky if we could capture it so elegantly and with such wit in prose."
-BOB PACKWOOD, former U.S. Senator
