Donald Friedman

 
Overview

Wealthy fifty-year-old Pritzker, with two failed marriages behind him, decides to try again with a broker of Russian brides, and finds the young and beautiful Ludmilla who is desperate to escape a dreary dead end life in Vladivostok. Pritzker understands that Ludmilla is bartering her youth and good looks for a life of ease in America and is confident that a well-crafted prenuptial agreement would, as it had before, “allow him to suck the juice out of the prenuptial fruit and discard the rind with impunity.”

Spread over twenty years, the story begins in Manhattan in the 1990’s and ends in the mythical town of Apiaka, Florida. We see what Pritzker has failed to appreciate—the native intelligence and inner resources that will enable Ludmilla to outwit her controlling husband and his lawyers, and emerge from the marital crucible as a strong and independent woman.