Shopaholic Abroad

Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic Abroad will prove a big treat for fans of The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic with the irrepressible Rebecca Bloomwood, the financial journalist with the stratospheric credit card bills, returning to the high streets. But things have changed for the impulsive shopper: "I'm a completely different person from the old Becky. I'm a reformed character. I haven't even got an overdraft!" Her high-flying boyfriend Luke has got a job in America and Becky's going with him to the land of "yellow taxi cabs and skyscrapers, and Woody Allen and Breakfast at Tiffanys"; she's also got the possibility of a television slot advising viewers on money matters. Of course New York also has department stores, lots of them: There's always that buzz as you push open the door, that hope, that belief that this is going to be the shop of all shops, which will bring you everything you ever wanted, at magically low prices. And Rebecca starts to indulge in the poetry of purchasing. Unfortunately she's brought down to earth with a bump, the light and glitter and the voices telling her she was the next big thing are an illusion, her debts are still scary and her boyfriend hates her. So it's back to England for Becky, for an inventive denouement and a delayed happy ending.