It was the third highest seller in the US in 1993, after Waller's Bridges of Madison County, to which this book was his followup,[1] and John Grisham's The Client.

[2] Like the main protagonist, Waller was an economics professor and so draws on his own experiences teaching at Northern Iowa University .

[3] Michael Tillman is an unconventional Iowa tenured economics professor, rides a vintage motorcycle and walks barefoot as he teaches Boolean Algebra.

He feels an immediate attraction to Jellie Braden when she walks into a dean's reception with her husband Jimmy.

Their common experiences links Jellie and Michael together in India and within a year the affair in consummated.