Away Amy Bloom

Away is the extraordinary story of young Lillian Leyb. Her family destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way.

In 1920's New York, she is taken under the wing of Mr. Reuben Burstein, the famous impresario and his matinee-idol son Meyer. But then her wily cousin Raisele arrives, with some unexpected news about Lillian's young daughter Sophiel Driven by a wild hope, Lillian sets off on an odyssey across America, traveling from New York's Lower East Side to Seattle's Skid Row and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail towards Siberia.

Away is storytelling at its finest - epic in sweep, but intimate and psychologically acute, moving but unsentimental. Like the novels of Sarah Waters, it is both richly authentic in its period detail, and fresh and contemporary in its style. Amy Bloom's first novel in eight years paints a vivid, earthy and surprising picture of 1920s America, its smell and its textures.

But above all, Amy Bloom has created an unforgettable character in Lillian Leyb - her voice, haunted/damaged yet innocent, passionate, witty and unpretentious, is so believable and strong that her presence lingers long after the novel ends.

Amy Bloom is the author of two collections of stories, Come with Me and A Blind Man Can see how much I Love You, a novel Love Invents Us, and a non-fiction book, Normal. A practising psychotherapist, Amy Bloom teaches creative writing at Yale University.

Allen & Unwin
Author: Amy Bloom
ISBN: 9781862079700
RRP: $29.95