The Expats

Kate’s husband, Dexter, wants to move their family to Luxembourg. Dexter explains to Kate that it will allow them to live a life of comfort and fulfill their dreams of travel. When prompted, he reveals that he has been given a lucrative offer to work at a private bank there. As the years go by, they will likely be rich enough to enter early retirement.

Dexter notes that he will need to travel regularly across Europe for his work but promises that it will not disrupt their family life. Kate asks Dexter how he feels about living in Luxembourg, pretending that she doesn’t know much about it. Dexter rattles off facts about its affluence and small size. Kate thinks about the fact that she will need to quit her job. Dexter informs her that they will need to leave immediately for him to accept the job offer. He also emphasizes that everything will be taken care of by his new client, including the schooling of their children, Jake and Ben. Kate finally relents.

Kate sees the process of uprooting her family from the US as an opportunity for reinvention. She adopts Dexter’s last name and starts calling herself “Kate” instead of “Katherine.” She also quits her job, going through an extensive series of exit interviews, beginning with her boss, Joe. Preparing for the move, Kate comes to realize that she does want to start a new life.

The Moores migrate to Luxembourg and walk around their new city. Kate quietly remembers the last time she had been there, 15 years prior. She is also reminded of the time she spent in Oaxaca, Mexico, trailing a man named Lorenzo Romero. Romero had picked her up on a night out, unaware that she knew who he was. Taking him to a secluded area, Kate had killed Romero, making him her first target.

Kate goes to a café where she meets with other expatriate women, who begin to gossip about “the new American” (31) in town. They describe her as a woman who has no children, but an attractive husband. Later, Kate drives home, struggling to navigate while trying to pacify her children’s arguments and questions.

These moments are interspersed with the memory of an exit interview Kate had done before moving. An interrogator named Adam demands to know how long Kate plans to live in Luxembourg and what will happen if Dexter loses his job. Kate is also asked to explain the nature of Dexter’s work, developing security systems for private banks. She admits that she doesn’t know much about what Dexter does from day to day.

The narrative jumps forward to the events of the Prelude. Kate tells the familiar woman about living in Paris, and the woman tells her that she is there to go shopping. She also invites Kate and Dexter to dinner that night. Kate plans to check with Dexter first, so the woman asks Kate for her phone number. As the woman walks away, she asks Kate to give Dexter a message: “[T]he Colonel is dead” (46).

Kate complains about Dexter’s absence from home. Dexter argues that his work is urgent, but he won’t explain why. Kate wants to know who his client is, but Dexter says that it would put his job at risk to disclose that information because it might accidentally fall into the hands of his client’s competitors. He asks Kate to trust him.

Dexter and Kate are summoned to visit the embassy. The embassy officer informs Dexter that they have no record of his permit to work in Luxembourg. Dexter promises to come back with a copy of the permit.

One night, while Dexter is working overtime at the bank, Kate receives a message from someone at an organization called the American Women’s Club of Luxembourg (AWCL). The person offers to introduce Kate to a new American couple in town.

Kate once more remembers her interview with Adam, who asks her if there is anything else she wants to disclose about her decision to leave her field work five years earlier. Kate denies it, but Adam is skeptical, which prompts Kate to wonder if any of her past targets have any incriminating information about a previous incident involving her, a man named Torres, and an “innocent woman.” When Kate confirms that she has nothing left to say, Adam gives her instructions to meet with a man named Evan. He then informs her that her employment with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has ended.

Kate meets with Julia Maclean, the new American woman in town who the AWCL introduced to her. They talk about their experiences settling in the city and the fact that both of their husbands work in finance. Julia explains that she used to work as an interior designer, but that she can’t pick up a job in Luxembourg because she has no connections. She also reveals that she can’t have children. Kate claims that her previous job was working in government research. The two soon become friends.

Later at home, Kate is surprised when Dexter suddenly shows up, ending work earlier than expected. Dexter sees the boys playing a game, and Kate explains that it is one she has invented: playing spies. When Dexter comments on the pleasant quality of their life, Kate withholds telling him about the difficulties of the solitude she endures in his absence.

The narrative explains how Kate had been enlisted into the CIA. Her studies in political science connected her to the organization through her professor, who was a headhunter for potential officers. Though Kate disagreed politically with intensive government control and surveillance, she repressed her politics to pursue the excitement of espionage. Sometime during her work, she met Dexter, leading her to keep her work life a secret. Once they started a family, she began to push her work life aside.

Kate talks about how moving to a new city feels like entering college. Dexter disagrees, since most of his time is spent in front of a computer screen. Kate tells him about meeting Julia. When Dexter calls her “Kat” during their conversation, Kate reminds him to start calling her “Kate” instead.

Kate reflects on her reasons for withholding the truth about her work from Dexter. She is afraid of admitting she had lied to him for an extended time, making it necessary to tell him the truth about everything she had ever done, including her last field job in New York.

Following Kate’s interrogation with Adam, she meets with another interviewer named Evan, who conducts a comprehensive debriefing of all her past assignments. Evan asks her if she knows why her husband recently traveled to Sarajevo. Kate doesn’t.

Kate goes through the mail to look for any letters from Dexter’s bank. She had previously investigated Dexter before their marriage, but the absence of any incriminating details moved her to take a personal vow not to investigate him ever again. Kate finds Dexter’s contract but is unable to learn anything specific about her husband’s client.

Meeting up with Julia, Kate talks about her family life, including the death of her parents and her estrangement from her sister, who has an alcohol and drug addiction. She also shares that Dexter has little connection to his family and that his older brother, an ex-Marine mercenary named Daniel, died in Croatia. Julia recounts the story of how she met her husband, Bill, at a fundraiser. Later, she asks if she can run back to Kate’s car to retrieve her phone. Kate gives her the keys.

The novel returns to the day of the Prelude, presenting Kate as she heads home from the restaurant. Kate becomes hyper-conscious of everything around her, wondering about the timing of the woman finding her in Paris. She enters an art gallery and uses the noise to mask a phone call to Dexter.