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Arlington Resident Wins Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Patricia McArdle, a retired foreign service officer and Arlington resident, has won the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award in the general fiction category.

McArdle’s debut novel, “Farishta,” follows a female American diplomat who transfers to a remote outpost in Afghanistan, where she becomes a sort of guardian angel (“Farishta” means angel in the Dari language) to the refugee women fleeing the country’s violence.

McArdle will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, along with a $15,000 advance.

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