Simply put – Away from Everywhere took me away from everything and back again.
After hearing Chad Pelley himself read the first few pages of his book at the Writer’s Federation of New Brunswick WordsSpring I was gripped and disappointed that his book had already sold out at the event. I added it immediately to my “to-buy” list and put it right at the top.
Hearing Pelley read the beginning of the novel again when I read it, I was able to carry his voice throughout the book which added so much to it’s impact.
Pelley took on the voice of two brothers with completely different views of their similar world as well as a woman caught between them. Not knowing who to sympathize with more I was easily relating to the married doctor detached from his family, his brother the passionate brother falling in love with the loves possibilities and the woman who was married to the first but falling for the second.
As a writer I easily sided with Owen, the struggling author searching for his next big break but being distracted by the freedom and excitement of reality only I couldn’t look past that he was taking a wife away from her husband and two young girls. I’m a sucker for romance and falling in love, of course, but death do you part and all that. Once committed always committed, with so very few exceptions.
And Alex. The man trying to be a success in the work place at the expense of his relationships. While he was ever diligent in making his social status climb he disengaged from those who mattered most with such ease I learned to despise him and yet forgive him in the next scene.
Their father who was a successful writer we meet only through memories and the eyes of his sons as his world of fiction became his own reality. Scoring jobs, meeting people, and solving crimes that could never be recorded for proof and were no longer written down as fiction. I had to wonder how many fictional writers have a little schizophrenia inside trying to pour out, our fingers acting as a dam.
A brilliant novel which left me both loving being a writer, inspired by Pelley who is becoming a great success in the author field at such a young age and also cursing the fact that I truly am a writer as there is so much truth to Owen’s struggle and distraction with making a living doing what he loves.
This is a must must must must read in my books and one I will definitely be reading again in later years to see how my view of their stories have changed. It’ll be interesting to discover their world all over again. I can’t wait for the next novel by Pelley.
Thanks for reading,
Sarah Butland author of Sending You Sammy
