From the mega bestselling and acclaimed author of The Light Between Oceans, a global phenomenon, comes a magnificent and spectacularly moving new novel about family secrets that must never be revealed, and what the heart can endure for the sake of love.
When we do something that can’t be undone or mended, how do we go on living? How do we find our north star when there is no right answer? These are the questions at the center of M. L. Stedman’s unforgettable and magisterial new novel, A Far-flung Life. From the author of the beloved and bestselling The Light Between Oceans, this is a sweeping and epic story of a family, a tragedy, and the aftermath that reverberates for decades.
Remote Western Australia, 1958: here, for generations, the MacBrides have lived on a vast sheep station, Meredith Downs. It is a million acres, an ocean of arid land. On an ordinary day, on a lonely road, under the unending blue sky, patriarch Phil MacBride swerves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds the lives of the entire MacBride family are shattered. And then, tragedy revisits, when a twist of consequences claims the life of one sibling, and leads another to give up everything for the sake of an innocent child. Matt, the youngest MacBride, is plunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide. The secret at the heart of this gutting and beautiful story forces him to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness.
A Far-flung Life is a tale about family and belonging, fate and time. It is about people trying to do their best, and each, for private reasons, seeking shelter from the storm of life.
Can a fleeting moment unravel a whole life, mar it indelibly and irrevocably? Can compassion, resilience, and forgiveness allow us to come to terms with our human imperfections? These are the questions Stedman asks in A Far-flung Life, her profoundly moving, uplifting, and luminous new novel about what the heart can endure for the sake of love.
A Far Flung Life
"I wanted to like this book more than I did because I loved, The Light Between Oceans! Don’t get me wrong, I liked this book for the most part but I could never get past the glaring elephant in the room; the impossible premise at the heart of the story that Andy’s biological parents could be Rose and Matt. I’ll say no more because I don’t want to spoil the story. You’ll figure it out when you get to that part and will most likely be asking the same unanswered question; how is it possible that Andy would be born a normal, healthy child? I was hoping right up until the last page that this issue would be resolved. It left me scratching my head at the impossibility of it all. 😵💫😵💫"
