Recent Reviews
A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman
Over a decade has passed since the release of M. L. Stedman’s engrossing debut novel, The Light Between Oceans. Her new novel, A Far-Flung Life, was well worth the wait. Stedman writes with empathy and compassion for the moral conundrums her characters face. The novel explores how people live in the aftermath of tragedy, the secrets they hold close, and the ways love and sacrifice can mend wounded souls.
This multigenerational story begins in 1958 in isolated Merideth Downs, a one-million-acre sheep station in Western Australia. Though the land is vast and beautiful, its ever-changing weather patterns and intrusive wildlife are unforgiving. Generations of the McBride family have farmed sheep in this rural area since 1829. Details of every birth, marriage, death, weather event and sheep activitiees are recorded in logbooks, creating a constant sense of the family’s place in both the past and future of the station. The McBride’s closest neighbors live at another sheep station 100 miles away.
Phil and Lorna McBride have three children. One day, while Phil is driving with his two sons, he swerves to avoid a kangaroo and crashes. Phil and his eldest son, Warren, are killed, while the youngest, Matt, is badly injured. Despite their profound grief, Lorna and her daughter, Rosie, try to carry on as they tend to Matt and hope for his survival. Matt does survive, though he doesn’t completely heal.
That fiery crash sparks a series of events that alter the lives of the three remaining McBrides. As the narrator observes, “It’s a reminder that solid ground, unchanged for millions of years, can rearrange itself without warning or permission. You just have to live with the new terrain. Repair what roads and fences you can. Start from scratch for the rest of it.”
At this point in the story, a disturbing plot thread emerges, and those involved must decide how to proceed. Stedman navigates this thread with sympathy, not judgment. In the hands of a less skilled writer, the book might be too difficult to read. But with Stedman’s skill and insight, the story becomes a message of acceptance, understanding, and love. These are good people wrestling with major moral dilemmas and balancing self-sacrifice with happiness.
In addition to the McBride family, other characters harbor secrets that the community considers taboo. Yet these characters are steady, conscientious members of that community, while the few folks who behave badly appear small and petty by comparison.
What Stedman’s novel conveys is that if we knew what another person has endured, we might never judge anyone harshly. The story is filled with instances of good people trying to protect those they love.
As I finished the last page, I felt appreciation for this beautiful book, which shows deep respect and understanding for the complexities of being human. M. L. Stedman’s A Far-Flung Life is both heartbreaking and hopeful. Highly recommend. 5/5
Four Letters of Love by Niall Williams
Four Letters of Love is a story about the mystical, often inexplicable ways people find their beloved. It’s hard to describe the beauty and grace of Niall Williams’ writing. His touch is light, his insights powerful, and each sentence overflows with lyricism. His reverence for the lush landscape of western Ireland and the people who dwell there can be felt in every line.
The book’s back cover states that Isabel Gore and Nicholas Coughlan are destined to be together. And though it’s frustrating that they don’t meet until the last third of the book, Williams seems intent on setting the stage first. In the early chapters, he reveals Isabel and Nicholas’ complicated backstories and the emotional forces that shaped them. These stories include childhood wounds, guilt and the complicated dynamics of each set of parents. Williams dissects and untangles those emotional strands with care and wisdom, adding context to their eventual meeting.
When Nicholas visits the island across the sea from Galway to seek a painting his father made, he falls hard for Isabel, and eventually she for him. Given their prior paths, the probability of their encounter is low, and their eventual meeting seems unlikely. To complicate matters, Isabel is already married. Yet out of the chaos and unpredictability of the world, Niall Williams suggests that sometimes blessings appear. Love’s path is not always straightforward, and Nicholas and Isabel’s connection takes time to take hold. The depth of their bond reveals itself most fully through Nicholas’ love letters.
Here is the short chapter in which he describes meeting Isabel for the first time.
“Some things do not bear telling. I think my father knew this. I think he knew how words can sometimes flatten the deepest emotions or pin them like wild butterflies stunned out of magnificent flight, flimsiest souvenirs of what moved and coloured air like silk. Better to image it. Imagine music playing, imagine light falling through the clouds into the morning street and the scent of the island following us as we walked to find the shop. Imagine there was nothing unlovely in the world, and that we walked as proof of miracles, our feet barely touching the path and smiles playing on our faces as the thousand birds sang in the sky. Imagine goodness floated from us into the city air and cars slowed to unwind windows and breathe the thick perfume that smelled like white candles and fresh linen. Imagine all the aches of the world had secretly mended, and music heralded the news, rising along allegro with notes like joy and laughter pealing as we opened the door. This is how I came to see Isabel Gore for the first time.”
Four Letter of Love is a gorgeous novel. Niall Williams pierces his characters’ hearts, reaches into their souls, and conveys their thoughts and feelings in beautiful, poetic prose. Highly recommend. 5/5
