Pat Butler

Through Her Opera Glasses Pat Butler

It's August 1930 and storm clouds are brewing across Europe, heralding the rise of fascism and the upheavals of the Great Depression. Even so, these frightening realities can't stop twenty-four-year-old Betty Harbert from making the most of her tour of the continent. Sailing from Montreal with her wealthy Aunt Barbie and cousin Win, Betty attends a Parisian finishing school, tours Europe twice, and spreads joie-de-vivre wherever she goes. Based on a stack of letters written by the author's mother during her year abroad, this novel offers an exciting glimpse of inter-war life in some of Europe's great cities, through the eyes of a vibrant young woman who never failed to appreciate the magnificent world around her. Whether she's riding around the English countryside in her date's Morris Cowley sports car, at the salon getting a Marcel wave, or touring the Louvre and the Tuileries Garden, Betty's great wit and warmth come through in every line of this account of her adventure abroad.