Home : Novels : Mainland Mainland is the story of an unusual affair between Eleanor, successful author, teacher, contented wife and mother, and Toh--a young Chinese student hired to be her chauffeur. Eleanor, recovering from an eye operation, feels her whole world has gone out of focus. She finds herself unable to communicate with her present family and turns instead to her past; to the sharp-tongued ghosts of her dead mother and grandmother silenced only by the ironic, affectionate voice of her former best friend Jane whom she contacts again after five years; and by the indefinable love she has for Toh in the one-room apartment in Chinatown: their Mainland. "She has a fine comic touch, and uses it with imagination." Daily Telegraph "This short, lilting novel offers many delightful surprises, not only in its underlying optimism, but in its fresh, funny and often poetic prose. Humorously, but with immense sympathy, Mrs. Schaeffer describes Eleanor's sense of the terrors of existence...She makes us feel Eleanor's fear as deep, real and worthy of concern...The Madness of a Seduced Woman was a rich, complex book in which love was a destructive force...In Mainland, a lighter and simpler book, it soothes and reconciles." The New York Times Book Review "A jewel of a book...contemporary, pertinent and unique." Newsday "Pithy, funny and moving...Schaeffer's delicate depiction of the love story, her sure hand with comic scenes and whimsical observations, and her wise understanding of human emotions combine to create an engrossing, surprising and satisfying book....one of her best." Publishers Weekly