Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Away: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Away: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Away: A Novel
    Ebook277 pages4 hours

    Away: A Novel

    By Amy Bloom

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart–come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateAug 21, 2007
    ISBN9781588366498
    Unavailable
    Away: A Novel
    Author

    Amy Bloom

    Amy Bloom is the author of a novel, Love Invents Us, and two collections of stories: Come to Me, nominated for a National Book Award, and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and numerous anthologies here and abroad. She has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly , Vogue, Slate, and Salon, among many other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award. Her first book of nonfiction, Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude, is an exploration of the varieties of gender. She lives in Connecticut and teaches at Yale University.

    Related to Away

    Related ebooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Great Read

      Oct 5, 2023

      Edenglassie was the name of the penal colony that ultimately became Brisbane and this is the setting for a haunting new epic novel by one of our finest storytellers. It’s 2024 and Granny Eddie has tripped over on a tree root outside Brisbane’s mariti

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Light Left Burning

      Jan 13, 2020

      A Light Left Burning
      9 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      From Our Archives: A 1981 Interview With Toni Morrison

      Aug 7, 2019

      The award-winning author Toni Morrison died Aug. 5, 2019. We're reposting this 1981 interview conducted shortly after her fourth novel, "Tar Baby," was published.

      11 min read

    • Article

      Prevarication Jones

      May 1, 2019

      Prevarication Jones
      16 min read

    • Article

      We All Have Our Stories

      Mar 1, 2021

      We All Have Our Stories
      14 min read

    • Article

      The History Before Us

      Jan 21, 2019

      The History Before Us
      10 min read

    • Article

      ‘In the Country of Women’: Featured Nonfiction from Susan Straight

      Nov 19, 2019

      In our latest edition of featured nonfiction, we present an excerpt from National Book Award finalist Susan Straight’s new novel, In the Country of Women, out now from Catapult. The post ‘In the Country of Women’: Featured Nonfiction from Susan Strai

      8 min read

    • Article

      Anything Goes For Me And My Chums

      Aug 25, 2021

      In my neck of the woods, it’s back to normal. How’s it with you? On the bus and the London Underground, I am still wearing a mask, but other than that, everything is much as it was before the pandemic struck – except that my office-worker friends rea

      3 min read

    • Article

      Venice Peach

      Oct 2, 2023

      1. THE DRESSMAKER AND THE HIDDEN SOLDIER by Doug Gold (A&U) WWII thriller about Kiwi soldier and Greek dressmaker 2. SUMMER FAVOURITES by Vanya Insull (A&U) Recipes from @vj_cooks 3. TE REO KAPEKAPE: Māori Wit and Humour by Hona Black (Oratia) Having

      4 min read

    • Article

      Dolly’s Star Turn

      Jul 12, 2023

      Dolly’s Star Turn
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Keeper Of Stories

      May 27, 2022

      The Keeper Of Stories
      13 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Oct 5, 2022

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      A tender THREAD

      Dec 22, 2021

      A tender THREAD
      9 min read

    • Article

      The little NIGHTINGALE

      Dec 7, 2022

      The little NIGHTINGALE
      9 min read

    • Article

      A double LIFE

      Sep 13, 2022

      A double LIFE
      6 min read

    • Article

      “Drawing Attention To Himself ... Again ”

      Jun 19, 2019

      From the outside, Barry Humphries’ home in north west London is unassuming. Inside, every inch of wall is lined with gorgeous pre-Raphaelite paintings, bookcases heave with first editions. There are thousands of books. I wait for him in a pale blue s

      7 min read

    • Article

      Not Everything Turns to Gold

      Oct 2, 2018

      Theodore Roosevelt once said, “When I am in California, I am not in the West, I am west of the West.” The Rough Rider’s koan has been widely viewed as a celebration of the limitless California adventure, but it’s also a reminder of the dizzying, vert

      4 min read

    • Article

      Hearts Of Darkness

      Jul 23, 2023

      Port Flinders is a sad and shabby seaside town in Queensland. It is stinking hot and conceals a cesspit of sordid secrets. In what passes for the town, at the laundromat once again “someone’s pissing in one of your washing machines”. The place has on

      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jul 13, 2022

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      from SCENES FROM LATIN POETRY

      May 1, 2024

      Qui tacet consentire videtur. Silence gives consent.Veritas odium parit. Truth creates hatred. You know how you can know some thingsbut forget you know until it’s time to remember.Mom met her third husband Billy whenshe was a teacher helping convicts

      3 min read

    • Article

      Losing My Rock

      Jun 19, 2019

      Losing My Rock
      5 min read

    • Article

      Dolly’s Star Turn

      Aug 9, 2023

      Dolly’s Star Turn
      7 min read

    Reviews for Away

    3.5/5

    668 ratings72 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      People seem to either love or hate this book. I loved it, but found that you had to just accept the story and go with it! Don't over-analyze or look for plausibility. Despite the subject matter this is a happy book, and unlike other books, you find out what happens to characters after they move on!

      I fell in love with this flawed, strong survivor, and loved being along on her voyage.
    • 3/5
      My book club always has the most interesting books. This is another one I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own. I enjoyed listening to the story of a woman that comes to America from Russia and then learns that her daughter is still alive. Her journey from New York to Siberia is very interesting. The events and things she encounter make for a very intriguing adventure.
    • 4/5
      After reading some surreal stories and an almost plotless post-modern novel, I was looking for something with a clear strong narrative. This fit the bill, even though it jumps back and forth in time it is easy to follow.After her family is killed in a massacre of Jews in the 1920s, Lillian emigrates to New York. She gets a job as a seamstress in a theater and becomes the mistress of the owner. When a cousin arrives and tells her that a village couple saved Lillian's daughter Sophie and took her to Siberia, Lillian starts on a journey to recover Sophie. She decides to head west to get to Siberia by crossing from Alaska.During her travels, Lillian is befriended by a group of strange characters of dubious backgrounds. I liked the way Bloom follows through by telling what happens to these people after Lillian moves on and leaves them behind. There is a lot of violence and sorrow in the lives of Lillian and her friends; they have suffered unbearable losses. There is also hope, humanity, and humor. A fine book.This was published in 2007. I received a free copy from the publisher in 2014 as part of a promotional for another of Bloom's books. (About time I got around to reading it.)
    • 4/5
      An intensely readable combination of story, language and character. Dreamy, earthy, fascinating in historical detail of america in the 1920s. I wanted to know what would happen next in Lillian's life, and I'm glad the author tells us what happens to everyone else she meets along the way.
    • 1/5
      Okay, I might actually have given this book a 1.5 if that were possible but there wasn't much I liked about it. When you don't care about the protagonist, it's hard to care about what she does or what happens to her. There were certainly some interesting characters in the book but there weren't many redeeming qualities in any of them.
    • 5/5
      Wow! I was spellbound, listening to Barbara Rosenblat narrate this story while stuck on the Southeast Expressway every morning for a week. An epic journey across America in the 1920s, thoroughly engrossing, if not totally plausible. And Amy Bloom's use of language to "show, don't tell" is superb! If it weren't such adult material it would be a great example for a classroom teacher to use in teaching composition. I even learned something about the 1920s: Jewish pograms in Russia, immigrant life in NYC, railway travel, immigrant life in Seattle, WA, the Telegraph Trail through Alaska, and life in women's prisons. I want to read more by Amy Bloom (or listen to more, especially if Barbara Rosenblat is narrating).
    • 1/5
      didn't finish, bogged down. After reading reviews, I feel justified, it doesn't seem that it got any better.
    • 4/5
      A delightful book. The characters are what really make it, but the humor adds a lot, as does the use of historical detail.
    • 3/5
      Book on CD performed by Barbara Rosenblatt
      3.5***

      From the book jacket: Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower east Side to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia.

      My reactions
      It took me a while to get invested in Lillian’s story, but once her true odyssey to Siberia began I was completely hooked. Lillian is a complex character – naïve, pliable, opportunistic, determined, shrewd, compassionate, complacent, persistent, and maddeningly closed-off. She is used by others, and learns to use others. While hers is a very personal journey and one she mostly makes alone, she encounters a variety of other characters that help or hinder her.

      The characters are colorful and richly drawn. I particularly liked the practical women who taught Lillian how to deal with difficult circumstances – Gumdrop, Fat Patty, and Chinky. However, I did think that some of the side stories that dealt with these characters detracted from the central plot. The novel takes place in 1924-1926, a time of jazz age flappers in the big city, but also a time when a woman traveling alone by train was easily victimized. Lillian endures setbacks that would break a weaker person, but the thought of her daughter pushes Lillian forward regardless of hardship. I must comment on the book jacket’s promised “panoramic scope” – I absolutely agree with this description.

      The story line isn’t always linear, and since I was listening I didn’t have the visual clues of paragraph breaks to alert me to shifts in time or changed viewpoints. That was confusing in places. So, even though Barbara Rosenblatt is a marvelous narrator who performed the work beautifully, I would recommend reading vs. listening for this book.

    • 3/5
      The story was well-written and vivid, but I found myself pulled out of the story repeatedly due to words that broke across lines and missing commas.
    • 4/5
      I won this book through the First Reads program at Goodreads. I enjoyed reading it and finished it in one weekend.
    • 2/5
      I was so excited to receive Away and even more excited to start reading it. At the beginning, it moved along with great potential and then for me, it fell apart. The novel went in the opposite direction I thought it would move to. The writing drove me insane with endless sentences. One in particular consisted of 117 words. Even though I wasn't reading aloud; I felt myself getting breathless. I am not sure if the author writes all her novels in the same fashion but based on this one; I'm not going to try.
    • 3/5
      I don't like to be here but i have to say i am one of those middle of the road readers when it comes to AWAY. I understood the premise, the use of sex, I loved the idea about reading of the journey of a Russian immigrant who struggled for life and everything in it. The first pages draw you in and then ....blah..... I put it down time and again not sure if i'd finish it. But keep turning those pages folks because it does pick up again and you'll be glad you stuck with it! I may be the only reader who feels this way....you just may love it!
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed Away, but for some reason I had a hard time getting as engaged in it as I hoped to be. The main character, Lillian, bothered me at times because she seemed passive - like things just happened to her. The funny thing is that if you look at her actual actions, they aren't that passive, but somehow the whole tone of the book made them seem passive. I also felt that while the book was epic in scope, it didn't really fill out into that epic-ness - various episodes passed too quickly, and the style was a bit odd. Each episode in Lillian's life had different people in it that she never saw again, and the end of each episode in the book had a summary of what happened to those characters for the rest of their lives. Overall this didn't really work for me, as it resulted in my feeling more detached from the book than anything.
    • 1/5
      DNF - did no finish. Got about halfway through when I started to get Joyce Carol Oates flashbacks. I don't read JCO - to much unrelenting grimness. And I also remembered that I actually *don't* like Amy Bloom after another false start of a book where an adult was having sex with a minor. Turned me off completely. So on this one I just skimmed to the end so that I would know the answer to the big mystery of the book.

      I much prefer Anne Tyler.
    • 4/5
      Amy Bloom's, AWAY struck me as a turn of the century, Jewish immigrant version of the ODYSSEY. The main character is at once sympathetic and tragic. While I had a hard time buying the likelihood of this trip, I happily surrendered to its beautiful characterizations and prose. I easily recommend.
    • 3/5
      I read Away for a book club at the library. I've never been to this book club, or actually -a- book club, and I'm kind of wishing this wasn't the book with which I'll start.The story centers around a Jewish immigrant to America who lost her family and everything in Russia. I have trouble deciding how her frank practicality about human relationships and stations in life makes me feel. I found her callous at first. I recognize that each of the people she meets affect her profoundly, even though she seems so cold to me as she meets each one of them, and I do like her in the end. I also enjoyed getting to find out what happens to each of them after she leaves them.At any rate, not something I would usually pick up on my own, but not boring or unlikable, either.
    • 2/5
      I just wasn't that into this book. I had to keep reading some of the sentences over and over again to figure out what the author was saying.

      The story was supposed to be "epic", but it just wasn't very interesting.
    • 4/5
      Amy Bloom's AWAY is as big, complicated, beautiful, awful, funny, despairing and messy as life itself. From the back of the book: Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart–come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable. This is the second of Bloom's books I've read. The first was her collection of short stories, WHERE THE GOD OF LOVE HANGS OUT, and I'm happy to report she is as good a novelist as she is a short story writer. Bloom is a psychotherapist, and her knowledge of how the human mind and psyche work serve her well as a writer. Actions here feel credible, even in extraordinary circumstances. The author's understanding of what motives people is put to excellent use. Then too, the landscape and historical period is well-depicted, and she, like her heroine covers a lot of ground -- from Russia to New York to Dawson, from Jewish immigrants to Tlingits living in a B.C. cabin. I am impressed by Bloom's use of the third person omniscient, which is a point of view easy to get wrong. There is perhaps one misstep, when she veers a little farther off-track than is necessary with the story of a woman named "Chinky Chang". It's interesting and moving, but in the end made me anxious to get back to Lillian. For the most part, however, she manages it admirably, and it gives the book not only a depth that mirrors the vast geographical territory it covers, but also the spiritual and psychological landscape. On top of that, it was a riveting read that had me turning pages quickly. Enjoy.
    • 3/5
      I liked parts of this, and in fact, the beginning was very promising and I was ready to really enjoy it although it's not my typical sort of book. I liked some of the characters (Yaakov, Reuben, Meyer), although Lillian, the main character, wasn't one of them. The overall premise -- young immigrant who has lost everything and come to America with nothing to live for suddenly finds out she may in fact have something to live for -- was interesting, but the whole novel felt very episodic. Each section involved Lillian meeting a new character or a few, interacting with them, and then moving on to something entirely different. It sometimes fit into the narrative and sometimes didn't. Likewise, Bloom's strategy of finishing out a person's life story after their last contact with Lillian was interesting but didn't always pay off.
    • 4/5
      While a bit slow in a few sections, I enjoyed this book immensely. Other reviewers have said the writing was a bit disjointed but I only noticed it once and then I still was able to piece together what had just happened. Lillian's quest to cross America and get to Siberia had her meeting some very engaging, unusual characters. I could see this as a movie with scenes from the New York theatre life to Seattle's Skid Row to adventures in Alaska's wilderness. I would like to read more of Amy Bloom's work.
    • 5/5
      A wildly inventive, earthy, and heartbreaking tale of a young Russian immigrant and her trek across the whole continent of America searching for her lost daughter. A great American female picaresque hero.
    • 5/5
      beautiful, poignant, loved loved loved
    • 5/5
      This little book's entry on my To-Be-Read list had no indication of having received awards or nominations by its title (although it did ), no notation of it being on anyone's list of best books in 2007 (although it was). No, the entry contained only two words -- "Buy It!" As I sped through the story of Lillian's road trip, from Russia to New York to Seattle to Alaska, I knew I would want to return, soon, for the luscious language, the engaging wit, the heart-rending story, the twin markers of despair and hope that mark her way. I have two words for you: Buy It! Absolutely 10 out of 10 stars.
    • 1/5
      This book was so bad, and NOT in a good way. The whole story revolves around Lillian's journey to find her daughter. I won't ruin the ending for those of you who might be unfortunate enough to pick up this book. I'll just say by the end of the book, I didn't care if Lillian found her daughter.
    • 5/5
      Away is the story of Lillian Leyb, who leaves Russia after her family is slaughtered by gentiles, only to hear, once she is settling into life in New York City, that her daughter is still alive and was taken by neighbors to Siberia. Lillian thus begins a journey across North America, hoping to travel by boat to Russia by way of the Bering Strait. The need to find her daughter drives Lillian on her journey, and the rich details of the people and cultures she meets on her way drive the novel. Away is a feast of characterization, language, and story, and Bloom manages to create a slim epic through rich but restrained description. Not one detail is out of place, and everything Bloom tells the reader is necessary for understanding Lillian's story. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      Took me a while to get into it and by the time I was loving it, it was almost over. But it has stuck with me. It's not a realistic novel. Almost a fantasy novel about a 20th-century odyssey. A haunting tale of love and loss and displacement. Other readers of my book group attacked it too literally, I felt, trying to figure out why the lead character behaved as she did and wanting to see how she was feeling more. For me, it wasn't that type of book. Just experience her journey and let her actions take you into her life.
    • 5/5
      Lillian Leyb, young wife and the mother of Sophie, a sweet 4-year-old, has just watched her husband and parents slaughtered in a Russian pogrom. She saved Sophie by dropping her from the window and telling her to hide by the chicken coop. When the killing is over, Lillian has survived, but Sophie is nowhere to be found. After months of searching, Lillian heads for America, New York City to be exact, to stay with her cousin. The life for a female Jewish immigrant in New York isn't easy, but Lillian does what needs to be done to survive and meets some very interesting people along the way. Then another cousin arrives in NY giving Lillian hope that Sophie may have survived and is living in Siberia. This begins Lillian's oddesey across the US and Canada and into Alaska. She runs into good people and bad people, and in each situtation, the reader wonders, is this it? Is this where Lillian stops? But she continues on in search of Sophie. This is an excellent book. I listened to the audiobook read by Barbara Rosenblat, who is an amazing reader. Her use of a unique voice for all of the characters who speak along with the author's ability to make the characters come alive with her words made this book unforgettable. Realistic ending that made me cry. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      The back cover of Away by Amy Bloom called the book’s main character, Lillian, an “unexpected heroine.” I raised an eyebrow about that description – aren’t most literary heroines unexpected? – and looked for the great acts of heroism throughout the book. I didn’t find any. What I did find was a heck of a plucky character who tried to defy the odds – all in the name of love. Lillian was a Russian immigrant, escaping her motherland after Christians murdered her family and other Jewish neighbors. Believing her toddler, Sophie, had died in the massacre, Lillian came to the United States. She squeaked a decent life for herself as the lover of a man and his son. Then, Lillian learned that Sophie was alive. She shed her life of comfort and began an embattled journey to Alaska, en route to Siberia, to find her daughter.Lillian would do just about anything to complete this journey. She slept in train broom closets, performed oral sex, helped a prostitute and spent time in a female work camp. From trains to boats to walking, Lillian never swayed from her goal: to reunite with Sophie. It was this resolve that got her through some tough situations.It was these tough situations, though, that weighed the novel down. I’ll be the first to say that women can endure a lot, but the obstacles were frequent and treacherous. They made for good stories but hard-to-believe road stops.Where Amy Bloom shines is with short stories, and you can tell with Away. She has an uncanny ability to take readers down short side streets, introducing them to colorful characters, and leaving them with the feeling of closure before moving on with the story. It works for short stories but harder to pull off in a novel. Overall, I would say Bloom was successful in putting her story together, though some readers might find this style clunky.Away was a good story with some flaws. I would recommend it to readers who are interested in the plight of immigrant women in the early 20th century. However, a word of caution: this book has many graphic sex scenes, and if you repulsed or not interested in reading them, then stay far away from Away.
    • 3/5
      It's somewhat haunting now that I have finished it, but didn't grab me while I was reading it. Not bad, but I won't read it again, and wouldn't recomend it further.