The Foreign Service Journal, November 2003

Service in 1974. She served in Zurich, Lagos, Prague, Kigali, Berlin, Kaduna and Washington. The book can be ordered from http://www.1stbooks.com. NOVELS The Sword and the Chrysanthemum: Journey of the Heart Susan Scharfman, 1st Books Library, 2003, $12.50/paperback, $4.95/ e-book, 298 pages. In 17th-century Japan, a Eur- asian poet-fisherman of mixed- blood parentage, Arashi, and a wily shogun’s unconventional daughter, Michiko, are two unlikely lovers in a world defined by class, blood and steel. Their tightly interwoven destinies span two continents and a life-altering inner journey in an epic story told with passion and rich detail. In the end, Michiko must choose between the two men she adores — her father Masakado, at whose side she learned court politics and foreign affairs, and her lover. And Arashi must con- front a martial tradition the shogun cannot dishonor. This is retired Foreign Service officer Susan Scharfman’s first work of fiction. She worked for CBS Television News before joining the State Department, where she was assigned to The Hague, Brussels and Tokyo, and to USAID missions in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Saigon and Rabat. Currently living in New Jersey, Scharfman is a free-lance writer. Diplomatic Affairs Robert G. Morris, Denlinger’s Publishers, Ltd., 2002, $6.95/ e-book, $9.50/PC disk, $19.50/ paperback, 275 pages. In retired FSO Robert Morris’ third novel, diplomats posted in the fictional South American nation of Colonia — the U.S. ambassador, the DCM and the science attaché, a “Johnny-come-lately” to the Service — are called to Washington to promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy through the new Institute for Hemispheric Cooperation. The story proceeds through all the nitty-gritty, often spicy and sometimes down and dirty twists and turns of their efforts. In the end, they are successful with Mexico, Cuba and the Soviet Union, but fail to get their own country to sign on to a treaty of cooperation. Though it has all the intrigue of a spy thriller, the story is about ordi- nary Foreign Service folk — appointees, officers and spe- cialists — and gives a straightforward look into their world. Morris has a Ph.D. degree in physics and joined the Foreign Service after working as a scientist. He has served in Washington, France, Germany, Argentina and Spain, and is the author of a recent monograph Science and Technology in United States Foreign F O C U S 26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 3 Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America Edited by Shawn Dorman, American Foreign Service Association, 2003, $12.95, paperback, 135 pages. This is a unique and timely book. It is the most informative account of the practice of American diplomacy, the only one to combine detailed job descriptions of the work done at embassies around the world by diplomats and specialists of the Foreign Service with a personal look into their lives. The book contains profiles of 23 positions in a typi- cal embassy and the individuals who hold them in embassies around the world, “day-in-the-life” journals from embassy staff around the world, and “Tales from the Field.” Photos and maps accompany the text. Editor Shawn Dorman drew on her own Foreign Service experience to make this a real-life, no-non- sense, true “insider” book. A Foreign Service political officer from 1993 until 2000, when she resigned and joined the staff of the Foreign Service Journal , Dorman served in Bishkek, Jakarta and the State Department Operations Center in Washington, D.C. Before joining the Foreign Service, she worked for the State Department in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and also taught English in Northeastern China. She has a B.A. from Cornell and an M.A. from Georgetown.