So Far Away

Thirteen-year-old Natalie Gallagher is trying to escape: from her parents' ugly divorce and from the vicious cyber-bullying of her former best friend. Adrift, confused, she is a girl trying to find her way in a world that seems to either neglect or despise her. Her salvation arrives in an unlikely form: Bridget 'Connell, an Irish maid working for a wealthy Boston family. The catch? Bridget lives only in the pages of a dusty old 1920s diary Natalie unearthed in her mother's basement. But the life she describes is as troubling-and mysterious-as the one Natalie is trying to navigate herself, almost a century later. I am writing this down because this is my story. There were only ever two people who knew my secret, and both are gone before me. Who was Bridget, and what became of her? Natalie escapes into the diary, eager to unlock its secrets, and reluctantly accepts the help of library archivist Kathleen Lynch, a widow with her own painful secret: she's estranged from her only daughter. Kathleen sees in Natalie traces of the daughter she has lost, and in Bridget, another spirited young woman at risk. What could an Irish immigrant domestic servant from the 1920s teach them both? As the troubles of a very modern world close in around them, and Natalie's torments at school escalate, the faded pages of Bridget's journal unite the lonely girl and the unhappy widow-and might even change their lives forever.

About the Author :
Meg Mitchell Moore worked for several years as a journalist. Her work has been published in Yankee, Continental, Women's Health, Advertising Age, and many other business and consumer magazines. She received a bachelor's degree from Providence College and a master's degree in English literature from New York University. Meg lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with her husband, their three children, and a beloved border collie. Suzanne Toren has over thirty years of experience in narration. She has won the American Foundation for the Blind's Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year, AudioFile magazine named her the 2009 Best Voice in Nonfiction & Culture, and she is the recipient of multiple Earphones Awards. She performs on and off Broadway and in regional theaters and has appeared on Law & Order and in various soap operas. Emma Galvin won the 2011 Audie Award for best fiction narration, was a finalist for the Audie Award in 2012, and won six AudioFile Earphones Awards for her narrations. A graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, her film appearances include My Suicidal Sweetheart, A Perfect Fit, and The Big Bad Swim. She has performed in several regional theater productions, including Love Punky, The Power of Birds, and The Realm.

Review :
Deftly interweaving vivid themes of parents and children, despair and hope, and the transforming power of second chances, So Far Away is an absorbing drama about both the things that change and the things that never do. -- "Naples Florida Weekly" Meg Mitchell Moore has taken the hot button topic of cyber-bullying and crafted a story so compellingly real you will never forget her thirteen-year-old heroine, Natalie Gallagher. Moore's pitch-perfect rendering of this girl's voice is nothing short of stunning. -- "Laura Harrington, author of Alice Bliss" Mingles the stories of a cyber-bullied high school student, a guilt-ridden archivist, and an Irish maid in the 1920s...Moore's storytelling skills are evident as the tension builds...Moore is equally skillful in capturing the class tensions of the early twentieth century and the scary cruelty of teenage girls amplified by twenty-first-century technology. The final pages dangle a plethora of loose ends, but they're unlikely to bother readers gripped by the novel's strong emotional content. -- "Kirkus Reviews" Moore wields a powerfully emotive style, not unlike that of Francine Prose, in which she displays both deep compassion and winning humor...A beautifully told story of human fallibility and connection. -- "Booklist (starred review)" Natalie and Kathleen, two people in need, reach out to each other, but it takes lessons learned from the past to help them move forward. This sweet and thoughtful novel is both tense and elegiac, exploring the damage we inflict on ourselves and each other and the strength it takes to heal. -- "Publishers Weekly" Suzanne Toren narrates the chapters told from Kathleen's point of view, adding an ache to her voice and giving listeners a sense of how the woman's losses have colored her everyday existence. At the same time, Toren is careful to maintain Kathleen's pragmatic outlook and disdain for self-pity. Natalie's chapters are narrated by Emma Galvin, whose youthful voice reflects a range of teenage moods. Her reading is particularly sensitive as Natalie grows more despondent over her personal problems and feels ther''s nowhere to turn. -- "AudioFile" The moving story of three very different women whose lives improbably intersect. Meg Mitchell Moore effortlessly moves among a teenage cyber-bullying victim, a mother who longs for her lost daughter, and a 1920s Irish domestic with a shocking secret. The result is a powerful page-turner about love, loss, motherhood, and friendship. -- "J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author " This engaging book is filled with parallels of loss and salvation, cruelty and kindness, and intergenerational rapport soothing the bullied heart. -- "Improper Bostonian"