Tangier Love Story

Carol Ardman traveled to Tangier in 1970 to tend her broken heart and—she hoped—find Jane Bowles, whose writing had literally saved her. Instead she found Paul Bowles at a time when he was as lonely and searching as she was. The two began an unconventional love affair that roiled Tangier’s incestuous expat community and transformed Ardman’s life. Her sumptuously detailed portrait of their relationship is as intimate—and as satisfying—as it gets. Jane and Paul Bowles were at the center of the no-holds-barred expatriate community in Tangier, Morocco, for decades, and they helped define an artistic milieu that included Truman Capote, Gertrude Stein, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Tennessee Williams. Polyamorous yet devoted to one another, the Bowleses ignited the imaginations of many, including the young aspiring writer Ardman.