Moonlight in Odessa A Novel

From the internationally bestselling author of The Paris Library, a witty and poignant story about a Ukrainian woman’s search for love, stability, and a life beyond the confines of her circumstances.

It’s 2008 in Odessa, Ukraine, and Daria, a whip-smart engineer, spends her days underemployed as a secretary—a job she was lucky to get in this rotten economy. She spends her evenings moonlighting as an interpreter at SovietUnions, an agency that matches lonely American men with beautiful-but-broke Ukrainian women. She spends her nights wondering if there is more she could be doing with her life.

When an American client offers marriage and a one-way ticket out of poverty, Daria jumps at the chance. She soon learns there’s a reason that her husband couldn’t find a wife in America, and that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the world. The perfect book for anyone who’s ever been stuck in a dead-end job or relationship, Moonlight in Odessa is an exploration of language, culture, and the difficult choices we make in the pursuit of love and stability.

Janet Skeslien Charles is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Paris Library. Her work has been translated into thirty-seven languages. She has spent a decade researching Jessie Carson (Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade) at The Morgan Library, the NYPL, and archives across France. Her shorter work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald, LitHub, and the anthology Montana Noir. To connect, visit her website JSkeslienCharles.com, @JSkeslienCharles on Instagram, or @SkeslienCharles on X.