18. If You Can Make It There …

The move to Brazil was turning out to be more complex than Augusto had expected. The whole experience had been a real culture shock. The family was having a hard time adapting to their new life, and it hadn’t been easy for the children to start a new school. Although they had overcome the language barrier very quickly, they missed their friends back home. Augusto and Marion had presented the move as an adventure but the reality turned out to be quite different. To start with, there were the hassles with the house. Workmen promised to come but rarely kept their promises. They seemed not to have heard of schedules—unlike Marion. They had relocated to São Paulo following her appointment as head of sales for Latin America. Now Marion, worried about her new responsibilities and feeling abandoned by her home office, spent long hours at work, came home exhausted, made a half-hearted effort to read a story to the children, and was then absorbed by her email before collapsing into bed. They hardly seemed to speak any more and their sex life was non-existent. When Augusto complained about the way the marriage was going, Marion would retort that he was drinking too much. But what was so wrong with having a few drinks to relax?