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    So Far Away: A Novel
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    So Far Away: A Novel
    Unavailable
    So Far Away: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    So Far Away: A Novel

    Written by Meg Mitchell Moore

    Narrated by Suzanne Toren and Emma Galvin

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Thirteen-year-old Natalie Gallagher is trying to escape: from her parents' ugly divorce, and from the vicious cyber-bullying of her former best friend. Adrift, confused, she is a girl trying to find her way in a world that seems to either neglect or despise her. Her salvation arrives in an unlikely form: Bridget O'Connell, an Irish maid working for a wealthy Boston family. The catch? Bridget lives only in the pages of a dusty old 1920s diary Natalie unearthed in her mother's basement. But the life she describes is as troubling - and mysterious - as the one Natalie is trying to navigate herself, almost a century later.

    I am writing this down because this is my story. There were only ever two people who knew my secret, and both are gone before me.

    Who was Bridget, and what became of her?

    Natalie escapes into the diary, eager to unlock its secrets, and reluctantly accepts the help of library archivist Kathleen Lynch, a widow with her own painful secret: she's estranged from her only daughter. Kathleen sees in Natalie traces of the daughter she has lost, and in Bridget, another spirited young woman at risk.

    What could an Irish immigrant domestic servant from the 1920s teach them both? As the troubles of a very modern world close in around them, and Natalie's torments at school escalate, the faded pages of Bridget's journal unite the lonely girl and the unhappy widow - and might even change their lives forever.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateMay 29, 2012
    ISBN9781611134346
    Unavailable
    So Far Away: A Novel
    Author

    Meg Mitchell Moore

    Meg Mitchell Moore worked for several years as a journalist for a variety of publications before turning to fiction. She lives in the beautiful coastal town of Newburyport, Mass., with her husband and their three daughters. Summer Stage is her eighth novel.

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    Reviews for So Far Away

    3.5/5

    54 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Thirteen year old Natalie Gallagher is facing a wealth of problems: her parents are separated, her mother is deeply depressed, her father has a new girlfriend with whom he is expecting a baby, and her best friend has turned against her and along with another girl has turned to cyberbullying which escalates very quickly. To top it all off, her English teacher has assigned an independent project of the student's choice; Natalie has decided to research her family tree, but that involves trips to the Massachusetts Archives.It is at the Archives she meets Kathleen and Neil. They have their own problems--Kathleen has lost touch with her only child years earlier, and Neil is attempting to adopt a Haitian baby with his partner. Yet as they help Natalie unravel her great great grandmother's story of immigration to the Boston area and work as a domestic, they all learn the importance of facing tomorrow with hope in spite of today's looming difficulties. They also learn about the importance of helping each other.This is a fascinating mix of history with current events. The past and present are drawn together into an unforgettable read.
    • 4/5
      Bright 13-year-old Natalie Gallagher is struggling to survive. Her mother is nearly catatonic from a difficult divorce. Her mostly absent dad and his girlfriend are expecting a baby. Natalie's former best friend has joined forces with a sociopathic Popular Girl whose cyberbullying of Natalie escalates at frightening speed. To escape, Natalie heads to the Massachusetts Archives with an old diary she found in her attic, hoping for help in deciphering the tragic tale of Bridget, a beleaguered Boston maid. Widowed archivist Kathleen Lynch sees in Natalie an opportunity to save another "girl in trouble," having lost her own daughter years earlier to drugs and bad friends and the streets. Natalie and Kathleen form a fragile bond that very well may be salvation for both of them-or their undoing. Summary BPLLayered tale sounding many levels of broken relationships. Incredibly Meg Mitchell Moore manages POVs of a 13 year old girl as well as a 60 something woman. Important for its rendering of the devastating impact of cyber bullying, So Far Away sings more than one tune: divorce, widowhood, blended families, gay partners hoping to adopt, first boyfriend. Ms Moore writes of broken connections, traditional bonds broken yet mended in unexpected ways.8 out of 10 For readers who prefer their domestic fiction blended with current issues.
    • 3/5
      I liked the alternating story between and fifty something widow and a teenage girl, faced paced read which I enjoyed.
    • 4/5
      The theme of ‘So Far Away’, spelled out frequently, is that teenaged girls are in danger. Always. Whether the danger is girls their own age, predatory bosses, or heroin, the threat is there. The story has three main protagonists: Kathleen, a 50ish archivist who lost her own daughter many years ago; Natalie, a 13 year old whose parents have split and are ignoring her as she gets bullied at school and on line; and Bridget, a young woman who emigrated from Ireland in the 1920s to work as a maid. Natalie seeks Kathleen’s help to find her ancestors for a school project, and ends up finding Bridget’s notebook, written when she was old. How Natalie deals with the bullying, how Kathleen deals with her loss and with Natalie and the connection between Bridget and Natalie make up a story of loss, survival, and how much everyone depends on other people. I couldn’t put the book down; it grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. But at the same time, I felt it had flaws. Kathleen is incredibly pushy and I actually didn’t care for her a great deal, even though I felt sympathy for her situation. Natalie’s father was almost a caricature of self involvement. The characters just needed a bit more work. And the theme of girls being in danger at all times being told instead of being shown so many times was heavy handed. Still, it’s a very good book, and now I must look for the author’s first novel.
    • 4/5
      When I first started reading this book I thought that though it was well written that nothing very much was happening, but this is one of those books that slowly but surely draws you in and keeps you there. The characters were wonderful, they became the people who live down the street from you, they were so very human in their failing, their problems and their lives. They tackle real crises, the same ones we all have to face every day, the challenges we try so hard to overcome and it was these characters that make this book so special. A young girl being cyber bullied by her ex best friend, a young gay man waiting to adopt a child and an archivist whose own daughter ran away when she was seventeen and has not been heard of again. These people find answers from friendship and caring and from a journal found of a young woman's troubles in the 1800's. A quiet novel but for me a brilliant one.
    • 4/5
      The slow pace and effortless flow drew me into the story and unfolded the characters lives and personalities bit by bit while also entwining them all together. Overall enjoyable read, nothing outstanding one way or another but definitely a story you can relax with.
    • 5/5
      From Lilac Wolf and StuffI'm officially a fan of Meg Mitchell Moore. She weaves tales that put you on the emotional roller coaster with her vivid characters.There are lots of people in this story, but only two main characters whose perspectives we get. As the synopsis states, Nat is a very sad character, getting bullied (not just cyber) while her parents are going through a divorce. Kathleen has been a widower for many years. Her young adult daughter has been missing for a few years, since she ran away. Kathleen is a very sad character as well. She really wants to help Natalie; to have a second chance to do the right thing.The cyber aspect makes bullying so much worse than when we were kids. I could have screamed when her mother found out about it and her solution? Taking Nat's phone and computer away. Way to punish the victim, MOM!How does this resolve itself? You'll have to read. I will say I think Meg does a great job keeping her stories realistic.
    • 3/5
      Better than average dual storyline novel; unusual for me in that I was actually more captivated by the present day story than the historical fiction aspect. The best part of this book is kinda the cover...
    • 4/5
      The slow pace and effortless flow drew me into the story and unfolded the characters lives and personalities bit by bit while also entwining them all together. Overall enjoyable read, nothing outstanding one way or another but definitely a story you can relax with.
    • 4/5
      The slow pace and effortless flow drew me into the story and unfolded the characters lives and personalities bit by bit while also entwining them all together. Overall enjoyable read, nothing outstanding one way or another but definitely a story you can relax with.
    • 4/5
      For Meg Mitchell Moore‘s second novel, So Far Away, she has created historical diary entries from an Irish immigrant maid’s found notebook, as well as believable contemporary characters ranging in age from 57-year-old archivist Kathleen, to Kathleen’s 30-something friend and coworker Neil, down to 13-year-old Natalie, who travels by bus from her suburban Newburyport home to Boston to visit the Massachusetts Archives in Boston on her own. She brings a crumbling notebook filled with handwriting too spidery for Natalie to read that she found hidden away in her basement – which turns out to be a gripping personal account from a Bridget O’Connell Callaghan (writing in 1975 as an elderly woman) about her position as a young maid just over from Ireland in a Boston doctor’s household.Natalie (whose parents have separated and haven’t been showing much interest in her life) is investigating her family history for a school project and as a way of escaping bullying classmates who are tormenting her with malicious text messages. Kathleen, living alone with her dog Lucy after losing her teenage daughter years ago, becomes concerned about Natalie, but isn’t sure whether or how to intervene.The author skillfully brings together several different story lines – historical and contemporary. Readers who liked The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve, or novels by Laura Moriarty or Joanna Trollope, should also like this moving novel about how easily families can break apart and how hard it can be to create new ones.
    • 4/5
      The theme of ‘So Far Away’, spelled out frequently, is that teenaged girls are in danger. Always. Whether the danger is girls their own age, predatory bosses, or heroin, the threat is there. The story has three main protagonists: Kathleen, a 50ish archivist who lost her own daughter many years ago; Natalie, a 13 year old whose parents have split and are ignoring her as she gets bullied at school and on line; and Bridget, a young woman who emigrated from Ireland in the 1920s to work as a maid. Natalie seeks Kathleen’s help to find her ancestors for a school project, and ends up finding Bridget’s notebook, written when she was old. How Natalie deals with the bullying, how Kathleen deals with her loss and with Natalie and the connection between Bridget and Natalie make up a story of loss, survival, and how much everyone depends on other people. I couldn’t put the book down; it grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. But at the same time, I felt it had flaws. Kathleen is incredibly pushy and I actually didn’t care for her a great deal, even though I felt sympathy for her situation. Natalie’s father was almost a caricature of self involvement. The characters just needed a bit more work. And the theme of girls being in danger at all times being told instead of being shown so many times was heavy handed. Still, it’s a very good book, and now I must look for the author’s first novel.