Lara Vapnyar

"A community college professor whose career has stagnated, and a wife and mother whose marriage has tumbled into a spiral of apathy and distrust, Lena is frustrated at the seeming 'impossibility of happiness.' As Lena makes her way to present a paper at a remote New England conference, a chance encounter with an old schoolmate a once average-seeming teenager who has since achieved international fame as a human rights advocate-catapults Lena into memories...