1970 and Gill's husband, Finbar, receives a Fullbright Scholarship to do research at Duke University, North Carolina. They leave Dublin to live among fellow academics but the constant barbecues, parties and suppers soon pall. So they rent a rural wooden farmhouse on a 'haze of romantic adventure'.
Soon Gill is growing vegetables, milking cows, churning butter, quilting, training horses, surviving termites and getting to know neighbours who speak almost the same language in a very different culture.
Written with warmth and sparkling wit, Three Years in Orange County is an insightful, immersive read.