Dear Beneficiary - Softcover

 

Cynthia Hartworth is a feisty 60-year-old who, despite strong convictions that she has everything in her life under control, discovers the modern world isn’t always as it seems. Widowed in her late 50s after a lifetime of dutiful, but dull, marriage, she decides that life is for living and she takes on a number of activities with enthusiasm and energy—to the distress and discomfort of her family. She embarks on a passionate affair with Darius, a 38-year-old Nigerian man she met at driving school, and is subsequently heartbroken when he has to return to Nigeria to tend to his sick parents, ending their relationship. Cynthia’s grandson, Tom, helps her connect to the Internet in her bid to try and contact Darius. When she receives an email message asking for her bank details to help a friend who needs medical help, she assumes Darius is asking for her support. Because of her naivety and stoic resistance to warnings that she needs to be careful about communicating via email, she ends up traveling to Nigeria where she meets some very interesting people—including her kidnapper; the crass and vulgar Tracey, with whom she develops an unlikely friendship; and finally her former lover.