A razor-sharp, globe-trotting satire of ambition, marriage, and American identity. Meet Sam Dodsworth: successful automobile magnate, self-made man, and living symbol of American achievement. But when Sam retires early and sets sail for Europe with his restless, socially ambitious wife Fran, he's about to discover that the real challenge of life isn't business—it's figuring out what truly matters when success no longer defines you. As Fran chases flirtations and fantasies through the salons and soirees of Europe, Sam is left to confront the growing distance between them—and between who he was and who he wants to become. Witty, unsparing, and surprisingly emotional, Dodsworth is Sinclair Lewis at his sharpest—skewering American materialism, European pretension, and the quiet desperation of people who've achieved everything except happiness. A novel of reinvention, midlife reckoning, and the bittersweet cost of independence, Dodsworth feels as fresh and relevant today as it did when it first stunned readers in 1929. For fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Evelyn Waugh, and sharp literary travel fiction, this is a biting, brilliant novel you won't forget.
