Product Description

On a small island off the northern Irish coast in the mid-nineteenth century, a sailor is washed ashore and dies in the arms of Mary, whose visions of this 'demon love' inhabit the most intimate reaches of her heart and mind until her own death. It is four generations later in Canada, where Mary brought her children to escape the potato famine, that her great-granddaughter Esther tries to make sense of Mary's life and the obscurities surrounding her family's history. Seductive, powerful and humorous, AWAY is an entrancing saga of thwarted emotions and heartbreaking betrayal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #315896 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Independent
'A ravishing evocation of the lives of those whose souls are irrevocably touched by nature'

Publishers Weekly
'Piercingly beautiful'

From the Publisher
CO-WINNER OF THE TRILLIUM AWARD (WITH MARGARET ATWOOD'S "THE ROBBER BRIDE")

From the author of THE STONE CARVERS

'An engaging and moving exploration of love: mother-love, romantic love, love of country ... AWAY is a melancholy Irish ballad sund on foreign soil, its words and music all the sweeter for being heard so far away from home'
"Washington Post Book World"

'A great romantic tale - rich in imagery and with language worthy of Emily Bronte and Thomas Hardy. Like these writers, Jane Urquhart is unafraid of words and spends them fearlessly ... beautiful and breathtaking'
Timothy Findley author of "Pilgrim"

'Urquhart writes with clear, sensuous poetry, locating her imagery in the watery Irish coastline and the wilderness forest of upper canada'
"TLS"

Customer Reviews

Lyrical Boredom
Jane Uquhart's novel Away, is about Mary and Eileen, a mother, daughter duo who have their lives changed by romantic, yet tragic encounters, at different times. The novel begins in Ireland, where Mary is possessed by the spirit of a sailor who dies in her arms on Rathlin island. People of the island believed that Mary was possessed by a deamon lover, who took her away from herself, society and her family. After staring death in the face, from the potato famine, Mary and her realistic husband, Brian, migrated to Canada. Even though Mary had left her country, her deamon followed and took her away, forever, leaving behind her son Liam and her daughter, Eileen. After being told the story of her families abandonment by Exodus Crow and former landlord, Osbert, Eileen falls passionately in love with the fiery Irish patriot dancer, Aiden. Uquharts novel is full of the political and spiritual drama of Ireland, and the Irish people. Jane Uquhart is blessed with the ability to write with such magic and lyrical composition, that at times she make the interesting, even more interesting, and consequently the tedious even more tedious. Jane Uquhart's melodious language is both her greatest asset and worst liability.

Very captivating read full of intriguing language
This book was recommended to me by an English major. With the skepticism of a non English student, I read on and found myself engrossed in the books characters and story. The story involves the women of successive generations of a single family starting on the shores of Ireland and ending up in the ever-urbanizing world of just outside Toronto. The women of the family and their respective passions are explored in a greatly interesting manner. I fully recommend this text. It greatly surprised me...Thks eddy

incomparable
A single sentence in this book encompasses the highest of art and spirit that the muse of writing holds out before all writers. Many produce volumes over a lifetime and never achieve the beauty, elegance and balance of Urguhart's writing. It may be a tale but it is the writing, the exquisite telling of the tale that matters here. This is a treasure.