Maggie O'Farrell writes intelligently about human relationships and families, but is also unashamedly emotional. She writes with intensity and truth about love and loss and desire, and crafts characters you care about.
I loved After You'd Gone, My Lover's Lover, and her latest, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, but The Distance Between Us is still my favourite. In fact, it would be on my list of top ten books ever, if I had such a thing.
In Hong Kong, Jake finds himself caught in a crush during Chinese New Year celebrations; the events that unfold lead to an ill-advised marriage and a return to England.
Meanwhile, Stella has a chance encounter that sparks a traumatic memory and sends to a location in Scotland, the significance of which only her sister, Nina, will understand.
The book dodges back and forth in time and between the characters; Stella and her sister, their parents, Jake and his mother, taking in themes of parallel lives, displaced identies and sibling rivalry.
This may sound confusing and in the hands of a less-skilled author, it would be, but O'Farrell deftly weaves the separate narrative strands together as we hurtle, inexorably, towards the point when Jake and Stella will actually meet.
Beautifully written and absorbingly romantic.
Rating: 5/5
Like this? Try: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger