Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Away

3.32 of 5 stars 3.32 · rating details · 6,586 ratings · 1,481 reviews

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...more

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published August 21st 2007 by Random House (first published December 30th 1996)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

I Should Probably Read This Sometime...

374th out of 1,061 books — 2,381 voters

Russian/Soviet Historical Fiction

6th out of 41 books — 33 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jan 26, 2008 Doug Bradshaw rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Unsqueamish

Recommended to Doug by: NYTimes and EW

Rather than review, I'm going to make my observations:

1. The book transported me into the life and brain of a 22 year old Russian girl who had to flee Russia to America in the 1920s. She has lived through the slaughter of her family and arrives in NYC without anything but the dress she's wearing. The author does a great job of putting you into the girl's shoes and you feel numb, desperate, your survival instincts kick in and you become ready to do what it takes to survive. Some of these things...more Rather than review, I'm going to make my observations:

1. The book transported me into the life and brain of a 22 year old Russian girl who had to flee Russia to America in the 1920s. She has lived through the slaughter of her family and arrives in NYC without anything but the dress she's wearing. The author does a great job of putting you into the girl's shoes and you feel numb, desperate, your survival instincts kick in and you become ready to do what it takes to survive. Some of these things aren't what you learned to do in church, and yet they must be done.

2. The book is full of fringe characters who live and barely survive in the time. She works as a seamstress, lives with cousins, sleeps on a couch, the floor, out in the wilderness, on a cot in jail, etc., over half the book. She meets prostitutes, men running away from the law, robbers, becomes friends with a gay man, spends time in a woman's correctional facility, etc. Overall, I felt that all of these characters seemed real for the time and you really are experiencing the world of the 1920s both in NYC and Alaska.

3. There were very frank and straight forward sexual experiences along the way. The feeling that it creates is that sex was almost less complicated and straight forward then than it is now. But we're a young, inexperienced girl from Russia who is desperate, has been married and likes men. So she is very submissive and doesn't worry too much about it when approached by men she likes. I've read that these scenes were a negative by some of the other reviewers. I would say that if you can handle an R rated movie, you can handle this and that for me, it added a human dimension that made you love and understand the main character, Lillian, very well. You have extreme sympathy for her and just shake your head at what she goes through and yet still moves positively ahead.

4. From time to time the author moves us away from our main character to tell the rest of the story of the life of one of the other main characters. It is a very satisfying, dot the i's, cross the t's experience. Each sub story finishes up within a few pages and yet we have this very fun synopsis of their life that makes us smile and doesn't leave us hanging like happens very often in this kind of book. Whatever happened to old so and so?

5. Many books have an obvious ending that we're planning on experiencing as we're moving forward. Although you will formulate a similar plan here, you will find that your plan won't be realized. And yet the ending is very satisfying as we zoom away from the main character and we have closure by the end of the book, even though the main goal of the main character is never satisfied. We're left with the feeling that life is really a series of coincidences that happen along the way and that your life, as much as you want to plan it out, is really more your ability to handle things as they happen, make adjustments and then be happy with what is given to you. Humans are resilient and capable of going through a lot of extreme situations and can still survive and even thrive.

6. Lillian has trudged on foot, boat, ship, train from NYC all the way through Alaska and up to Siberia to find her little lost daughter who may be still alive or more likely dead. But human instinct, that she-bear instinct, makes us do amazing and perhaps, stupid things. And yet the book is touching, wonderful and real. You have to wonder if some of the things she goes through could have really happened, and yet, you realize, deep down, that they did happen, as horrible as they seem from our protected, pampered perspective.

If you're a little squeamish about reality, sex, etc., perhaps you shouldn't read this book. But you'd be missing a very insightful and wonderful experience.(less)

22 likes · like · see review

Sep 03, 2007 Lillian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, reviewed

I took a writing class with Amy Bloom during my freshman year of college. What stuck with me most from this class was her insistence that even when you're writing about an unlikable, even villainous, character, it is essential that you have sympathy for that character, or the story won't work.

That perspective is what I admire most about Amy Bloom's fiction. Almost all of the characters in Away are seriously flawed human beings, but she paints such vivid portraits of these characters' inner live...more I took a writing class with Amy Bloom during my freshman year of college. What stuck with me most from this class was her insistence that even when you're writing about an unlikable, even villainous, character, it is essential that you have sympathy for that character, or the story won't work.

That perspective is what I admire most about Amy Bloom's fiction. Almost all of the characters in Away are seriously flawed human beings, but she paints such vivid portraits of these characters' inner lives and complex pasts that I couldn't help but have sympathy for all of them and admire more than a few of them.

Away is set in the 1920s and follows the travels of Lillian Leyb, a young Jewish immigrant from Russia whose family was brutally killed in a pogrom. Lillian's chutzpah and beauty catch the fancy of Yiddish theater kings, Reuben and Meyer Burstein; under their patronage, she begins to make a new life for herself in New York City. But one day, a cousin arrives from Russia with news that Lillian's daughter, Sophie, is alive in Siberia, and Lillian sets out on a journey to find her daughter. This time, though, instead of crossing the Atlantic, she traverses the United States and makes her way up the west coast towards the wilds of Alaska. Lillian's tenacity makes her an easy character to root for; what makes her so memorable, though, as a heroine, are her clear-eyed yet compassionate appraisals of the people she encounters along the way.

A fan of historical fiction, I found great pleasure in Bloom's rendering of the glamor and bustle of 1920s New York, the sultry seediness of Seattle's Skid Row, and the bleak wilderness of the Canadian frontier. I also loved her seamless use of flash forwards, letting us know what would happen to all of the minor characters we meet, decades into the future. (Edward P. Jones used this device to great effect in The Known World--a book that Away reminds me of in other ways, with its epic cast of characters and its sober view of human nature.)

Last note: Amy Bloom writes great sex scenes! She writes them with unflinching honesty--she is clearly fascinated by the ways in which people use sex to gain advantage in life--and yet, again, her compassionate perspective comes through clearly no matter how unconventional, uncomfortable, or ugly the sexual situations her characters find themselves in. (less)

14 likes · like · see review

May 22, 2008 Krista added it

Shelves: fiction

Turkey. Really deserves zero stars. One would expect more from someone who teaches writing at Yale. There were hardly any round characters in this book at all and so many offensive stereotypes. The protagonist is milquetoast and stupid. Ugh. I could not finish it. For me this is one of the best examples of the worst that modern literary fiction has to offer.

7 likes · like · see review

Jan 08, 2008 Bonnie rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

11 likes · like · see review

Oct 24, 2007 Rosa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is really interesting. Considering the basic plot - Russian Jewish woman whose entire family was slaughtered before her eyes escapes to America with literally nothing, establishes a fairly comfortable life here, then completely abandons it to go back to Siberia, due to a rumor that her young daughter whom she previously thought dead might still be alive - on plot alone, it seems like exactly the type of book my mother-in-law would read in her book club. However, when I looked at the re...more This book is really interesting. Considering the basic plot - Russian Jewish woman whose entire family was slaughtered before her eyes escapes to America with literally nothing, establishes a fairly comfortable life here, then completely abandons it to go back to Siberia, due to a rumor that her young daughter whom she previously thought dead might still be alive - on plot alone, it seems like exactly the type of book my mother-in-law would read in her book club. However, when I looked at the reviews on this site and on Amazon before starting the book, I kept seeing complaints about how slutty the main character was, that she basically sleeps her way through her journey. So I was all prepared for nonstop sex, and while there was lots of different kinds of sexual encounters, it didn't seem overly smutty to me (although once again, if I had been expecting the usual immigrant fiction type book at the start, maybe I would have raised my eyebrows more). Anyway, the intriguing thing about this book isn't about the sex, but about the way that it's written. Bloom has a really interesting writing style - she jumps back and forth in time with no transitions, and she'll send off a minor character from the main narrative by telling you how they live out the rest of their lives (including how they die and whether or not they die happy). It was somewhat reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the way she dealt with time. I also really liked the way the book ended - a lot of questions are answered, but it wasn't a silly well-tied up Hallmark movie ending, either. She does other interesting things with language that I enjoyed - for example, she's not one of those authors who spends pages and pages detailing what the room looks like, how the character sits down in a chair, etc. She gets right to the point of the scene. Some reviewers complained about having to read a paragraph several times to understand what actually transpired, and I did have to do that a few times, but I liked it - I felt there was an actual purpose to her writing it that way. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book a lot, and I'll bet my mother-in-law is probably going to read it in her book club anyway, smut or no smut - ah, to be a fly on the wall the day they get to the girl-on-girl scene!(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Nov 27, 2007 Lindsey rated it 2 of 5 stars

I'm very unsure of how I feel about this book. Parts of me loved it and parts of me felt so un-intellectual and low-brow for reading this romance novel, which essentially, is what it is. For being a journey story about a woman who goes to find her daughter who was thought to be dead, there was nothing much about the daughter, just the people our heroine meets a long the way. For the most part, the characters weren't interesting (except for one prostitute named Gumdrop), the action was pretty bor...more

11 likes · like · see review

Mar 31, 2008 tee rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-own

When I read some of Bloom's short stories, I wrote that I would have loved to have seen some of her short stories, fleshed out to be novels because I found her characters so unique and intriguing. Reading 'Away', I realise that even with the extra length of a novel to play with, Bloom still doesn't really flesh out her characters. They were fascinating, in description, then before you even got to get to know them, and love them or hate them, Lillian was leaving them behind. So I was left with th...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 13, 2009 thewanderingjew rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I opened the book to read, I discovered that I had already read it but did not remember it any cohesive way. To me, since it didn't leave much of a lasting impression, it would mean it was good but not wonderful. Only the most extreme events of the novel stayed in my mind, but even then, it was only in the barest outline form, so I had to skim the entire book in order to have it come together again in my memory.
I will say that it was an interesting book with many interrelated themes of surv...more When I opened the book to read, I discovered that I had already read it but did not remember it any cohesive way. To me, since it didn't leave much of a lasting impression, it would mean it was good but not wonderful. Only the most extreme events of the novel stayed in my mind, but even then, it was only in the barest outline form, so I had to skim the entire book in order to have it come together again in my memory.
I will say that it was an interesting book with many interrelated themes of survival and love running through it, spanning several decades and taking place in several countries and locales. The book moves seamlessly between events and holds the readers interest at all times but the circumstances surrounding many of the most important moments in the book are not always believable.
Many of the characters, who were well developed, seemed to have major flaws in their own "character", always doing what was expedient to accomplish their ends regardless of morality or ethics. Often, I stopped to ask myself, did the end justify the means? I am always amazed by the way characters use each other and abuse each other, in the books I read, and am sometimes disheartened when I realize that many of the incidents are based on a reality that may have actually existed in another form in one or another moment in time; fortunately this disappointed feeling often collides with a feeling of unexpected pleasure when I read of acts of inexplicable, unbelievable courage and kindness, which occur for no apparent reason. This book did not disappoint me in that way.
The main character is on a quest to find her daughter who was “lost” during a savage and barbaric Russian pogrom. The roads and paths that lead to that goal are varied and wide, filled with suffering and high and low moments, often unrealistic in content and scope.
She and many of the novel's characters seem to have exceptional lives with unusual problems and pasts. Nothing ordinary occurs. Life for the immigrants and citizens of the various countries we are exposed to in the book, in the early part of the 20th century, was hard and survival was almost accidental in certain circumstances. Events seemed to bump against each other randomly, at times, however, they blended well, in the end.
Each character is looking for something and each finds an avenue to get there which does not always lead them back to the beginning of their quest but often takes them off course making them, surprisingly, still happier with their unexpected results. Perhaps they find that what they think they are seeking is really not worth it or is really not attainable and what they have found instead, is more than than enough. Whatever the result, it is a circuitous, but exciting, route to the conclusion.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 02, 2009 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars

the story focuses on the external awesome life of an immigrant woman Lillian from the pograms to the lower east side to the pacific northwest to Alaska to Russia again. The charming, determined heroine struggles to survive, and then find her daughter again, and perhaps to find love. At first the book is a charming description of the immigrant experience through the eyes of the woman who has lost everything. then a newer immigrant, who may be lying, states something that changes everything for ou...more

2 likes · like · see review

May 25, 2008 Yosafbridg rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: own-and-read, fiction

"an orphan, a widow, and the mother of a dead child, for which there's not even a special word"

A few years ago i read The Woman who Walked to Russia: a writer's search for a lost legend by Cassandra Pybus. Pybus was browsing a bookshop while traveling through Northern British Columbia when she first heard of Lillian Alling, a woman purported to have walked from New York to Alaska on her way to Siberia in 1927. There were bits and pieces of the legend to be found here and there that told how Lil...more "an orphan, a widow, and the mother of a dead child, for which there's not even a special word"

A few years ago i read The Woman who Walked to Russia: a writer's search for a lost legend by Cassandra Pybus. Pybus was browsing a bookshop while traveling through Northern British Columbia when she first heard of Lillian Alling, a woman purported to have walked from New York to Alaska on her way to Siberia in 1927. There were bits and pieces of the legend to be found here and there that told how Lillian, a Russian immigrant, homesick, had haunted the New York Public Library hand copying maps and then somehow made her way across the country's railways to then follow the overland telegraph trail, on foot, through sub-arctic Canada and Alaska.

The splinters of this woman's saga took hold in Pybus' mind in a way that would not let her rest until she knew whole of the tale. Once she got back to her home in Australia she researched Alling and only found more pieces, ever more enticing. Eventually she is decides to take her own road trip to try and retrace Lillian's steps and in the end it is not until she is on her flight back home that she incidentally finds the truth. It is an interesting narrative of one woman's search for another woman's single-minded journey that took me over some of the familiar territory of my youth.

Away first appealed to me because i had read some of Amy Bloom's stories and liked her style. It was described as the story of a "dangerous, accidental heroine" whose family is slaughtered in a Russian pogrom and then comes to make a new life in America where she starts out in a yiddish theatre, moves on to the Jazz District of Seattle and then travels up through the Yukon. It somehow took me by surprise once Lillian Leyb hopped that train from New York and her story started resembling details of Lillian Alling's trek. At one point i had to flip to the acknowledgements in the back to find that Pybus' The Woman Who Walked to Russia was indeed mentioned. For me, making this woman flesh and blood and giving her motivations that i had previously not understood made both books all the more valuable (Lillian Leyb is looking for the daughter she had thought dead, but now believes alive.)

I'm not sure that calling this Lillian an accidental, dangerous heroine is entirely apt. She is not the most likable protagonist i have ever read. In many ways she has left her soul back with her dead loved ones in Russia (if she ever had it to begin with, sometimes it is a little difficult to tell~though perhaps that makes her tale all the more poignant.) It is a rather brutal novel to read but it is told with an honest and clear voice that i found enjoyable. I loved that Bloom told the fate of each person that had touched Lillian's life when she saw them for the last time, it was a touch of omniscience that did not seem out of place~that is quite a feat for a writer to pull off. With a few caveats i would recommend this one.
(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Nov 25, 2007 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Away" is a sad book. It's the story of Lillian Leyb, a Jewish immigrant who comes to New York after seeing her entire family violently murdered in their Russian village. When she discovers that her daughter may still be alive and in hiding in Siberia, she sets off to find her, literally crossing the globe on foot. She survives however she can: by befriending a superstar family in the New York theatre scene, by kissing up to the matron of a women's prison, by throwing in her lot with a rich pros...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 09, 2007 Beverly rated it 5 of 5 stars

The voice in this novel is impeccable. The main character, Lillian, is so human that I feel I *really* do know her. Her adventure gets moving in the second half of the book, and the novel changes from a compelling story of an immigrant escaping to safety to an un-put-downable tale of Lillian's struggle to return to the source of her pain. I've read few novels that make me feel like love has been honestly explored, but this is one.

Bloom descends briefly into the full lives of characters who have...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jul 25, 2008 Jean rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jean by: Picked it up by accident at library

A new author for me and and I liked her a lot. Interesting approach in that she would often tell you the outcome during the travails of the character. A good summer read...about determination, courage, resiliency, the human spirit and love...all kinds. One of those where you always wonder how you would react yourself ...me, I'd probably just curl up in a ball and die of fright under any of those circumstances. Women are amazing! Men too, but women are REALLY amazing!!!

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 12, 2009 S rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book that I had heard nothing about, saw it on the shelf of the local library & recognized the author's name, Amy Bloom, who wrote a book of short stories that I own but have never read "Even a Blind Man can see how much I love you". The summary on the jacket cover appealed to me so on a whim, I checked it out, started reading it and loved it. It is just so well written and she is such an amazing story teller, now I have to read other things she has written.

The story is of Lillian...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 16, 2008 Shira rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book was recommended by a co-worker, and the premise sounded very interesting. Unfortunately, I really disliked the writing style. I found it very disjointed. The narration also seemed kind of distant, and it gave very little insight into how the main character felt about the terrible things happening in her life.

Aside from the writing style, I also found the story to be very depressing. It tells the story of a young Jewish woman, Lillian, in the 1920s who flees her home in Russia after he...more

4 likes · like · see review

Apr 01, 2008 Erelin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Such a heartbreaking story written with Bloom's wonderful insight into the human heart! I read some reviews about this book saying that the journey the protagonist undertook in this book is not believable. What a load of crap! Anyone who has ever been a mother knows, that a mother will literally walk to the end of the world if there is even a faint chance that somewhere out there her child is alive and waiting for her! It was totally believable! I know that had I been in the shoes of the the pro...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 15, 2008 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, books-i-just-couldnt-get-through

I put this book on my list primarily because of several rave reviews from Goodreads friends. I made it to page 79, but it's going back to the library today.

The story itself was inventive and should have held my interest: Russian Jewish woman in the 1920s sees most of her family cruelly butchered in a pogrom and believes her daughter has died or is permanently missing, then ships to America, where she becomes involved with both the father and son in a Yiddish theater dynasty in New York.

I reali...more I put this book on my list primarily because of several rave reviews from Goodreads friends. I made it to page 79, but it's going back to the library today.

The story itself was inventive and should have held my interest: Russian Jewish woman in the 1920s sees most of her family cruelly butchered in a pogrom and believes her daughter has died or is permanently missing, then ships to America, where she becomes involved with both the father and son in a Yiddish theater dynasty in New York.

I realize I am giving up on this book before I enter the crucial phase of Lillian's search for her now apparently living daughter, but Bloom's writing style soured me too much for me to stick with it.

I don't know whether to ascribe my problem to what I would call "Creative Writing 101" syndrome or something else, but the non-sequiturs in Bloom's storytelling were driving me crazy.

Here's just one example. At one point, Lillian is returning to her apartment and is about to be surprised by the appearance of a cousin, Raisele, who has arrived from Russia and found her way there.

"She bumps open the door with her hip, holding Meyer's American cookies, Reuben's herring, her own hairpins and curling papers. Her cousin Raisele stands in front of her, head cocked, arms extended sweetly, as if she has come to America just to help Lillian with her wet packages. Lillian holds on to the boxed cookies and the herring, she thinks to put her key in her purse, and she does not faint as Raisele thought she might. Raisele herself thinks that fainting is a brilliant way to handle awkward situations, and she has practiced buckling her knees and letting her head drop loosely from her neck so many times that she can perform a faint wherever there's a little floor space."

This is how a brand new character is introduced in the flow of the story, a character who will deliver the profound message that Lillian's daughter may still be alive. There is no drama to it, and no real charm in the quirkiness of just inserting her into the narrative, and this kind of sudden turn in the flow to some new subject or person is constantly occurring in this novel.

Not for me.

(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Nov 16, 2007 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who like stories of immigration, reinvention, and quests

Amy Bloom's novel grabbed me from the very beginning and elicited a mixture of emotions including, "Damm. Why can't I write like this?" It's the story of Lillian Leyb's journey through many worlds in the United States of the 20's--the Yiddish theatre scene in New York, the back alleys of Seattle, an "Agrarian Work Center for Women," and the wilds of Alaska. Lillian came to New York after her parents, husband, and daughter were killed in Russia; she thought never to return there until she recieve...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 12, 2008 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, but the story was a lot rougher around the edges than I anticipated. That said, I really enjoyed Amy Bloom's narrative style. Some passages are truly poignant and beautiful. Others are very raw. But that's true of Lillian's life. The reviews call Lillian a heroine; I'm not sure I felt that way about her. Maybe it was just hard for me to identify with her.
The most enjoyable part of the book is Lillian's trip across the country in 1924-25. She meets quite a cast of characters...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 24, 2007 Kara rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who don't mind suspending disbelief to get to women's prison scenes

So, there are 74 reviews of this book, and the ones I read are pretty glowing. I didn't think it was bad, but it was incredibly strange. When you open up the first chapter and discover that you are reading about a Jewish immigrant to New York in the 1920s, it doesn't necessarily follow that she'll be murdering a pimp in Seattle a few chapters later, never mind getting a tattoo in a women's prison. I had to suspend a lot of disbelief for this one, and felt the ending was unsatisfying. Imagine get...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 19, 2007 Sundry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh my gosh. My only fear about reviewing this book is that nothing can probably live up to your expectations if I tell you how much I love it. It is right up there with The History of Love.

It could be partly that I am always interested in stories about people who are not middle- or upper-class. Bloom's heroine Lillian is so unapologetically determined and realistic that you can't help but fall in love with her. She embodies what is probably the book's catch phrase, what one needs to do, one can...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 14, 2008 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

The editor of Publisher's Weekly said this was her favorite book of 2007, so I had to check it out. I'll be chewing on this one for awhile - there are some heavy issues, as Lillian, the heroine, is a Russian immigrant whose Jewish family was slaughtered because of their religion. She faces a hard life in America in the 1920s, when she gets the news that her young daughter is alive, taken by neighbors to Siberia. So she starts the long trek to find her daughter, meeting all sorts of colorful char...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 30, 2007 Betsy rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one, alas

I thought this might be a keeper but I tired of it midway - it's the story of an Eastern European Jew who fled the pograms in the 1920s, surviving most of her family. Her odyssey in America - as she searches for her young daughter she thinks might still be alive - just didn't ring true, with too many underdeveloped characters, too much 21st-century-style depictions of sex, and too little insight into the main character's thinking. I struggled to finish - just so I could find out if Lillian found...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 02, 2011 Nina Vandewater added it

What a great story of love and courage! Lillian, a Russian Jew loses her family in a massacre in 1924 and makes her way to NY with nothing but guts and grit to start a new life. Though only 22, she had lost a husband, a 3 yr old daughter and parents. "We live and we love the world, Lillian thinks, and we kid ourselves that the world loves us back."

When Lillian hears from another immigrant relative that her daughter is still alive & in Siberia, she heads across the U.S. up into the Yukon to c...more

like · see review

Nov 09, 2012 Helen rated it 3 of 5 stars

First of all, this is a review of the audio version of the book so some of my comments may relate to how the reader, who was terrific, was able to turn the text into theater. Here goes: I always knew the short story version of the events that led my grandmother from the shtetls of Lithuania to the Lower East Side of New York City in the early 1900's. "My papa took the cart to the market, the horse came back without papa, papa had been beaten and killed by Cossacks..."it is a story that many Jews...more

like · see review

Oct 12, 2012 Lisa Vallier rated it 4 of 5 stars

Away is the story of a Russian immigrant who came to the US during the hey dey of Ellis Island. At its core the story is about the kindness of strangers and the ability of people in desperate situations to see the good in any circumstance.

When Lillian arrives on the shores of NYC she is given room and board by an aunt but is quickly taken under the wing of a NYC theatre producer and his matinee idol son. The men's treatment of Lillian is abhorrent yet she views them as giving her opportunities...more

like · see review

Jul 28, 2012 Beverly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lillian Leyb leaves her village in Russia after her parents and husband are killed in a pogrom. Her daughter Sophie is lost. She travels to America where her cousin Frieda rents her space. I felt very detached from her. She was very cold and calculating. Meyer Burstein, the star of the Yiddish theater, puts her up in an apartment where both he and his father Reuben, visit her. This all happens quickly without any lead up or thought. When her cousin Raisele arrives and tells her that her daughter...more

like · see review

Jul 25, 2012 Lorraine rated it 4 of 5 stars

For all the immigrants who have come to America and not succeeded, there are those who have, and they are the ones we want to read about. As readers we are more satisfied with happy endings than unhappy ones. In AWAY Amy Bloom tells a story of tragedy right at the start of this novel that eventually leads to a happy ending. Lillian Leyb, a 22-year old Jew is left an orphan, a widow and a mother of a dead child all in one day during a Russian massacre.

We follow Lillian from 1924 to 1926 from Eur...more

like · see review

Mar 28, 2012 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Amy Bloom is best known as a writer of short stories, and this novel reads rather like a stack of short stories that have been tossed in the air and published according to the order in which the pages landed. Bits of back story, abbreviated and largely unconnected plot elements appear, characters pop up and disappear from the story, and protagonist Lillian Leyb slogs along on her quest. Bloom mixes styles, sometimes writing in a declaratory narrative, then in long, complex sentences, and then wr...more

like · see review

Aug 23, 2011 Ruth Sims rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is another review of a book I read before I knew about Goodreads (maybe it didn't exist in 2008?) It seemed like a good chance to post it.

Away: A Novel
By Amy Bloom
Publisher: Random House, 2007
ISBN: 1400063566
256 pages

“Away” by Amy Bloom is a modern classic. It is the Odyssey, with the part of Odysseus played by Lillian Leyb, a young Russian Jew in the 1920’s. In her little village of Turov her mother, father, husband, and, presumably, her toddler daughter, Sophie, are slaughtered in a Pog...more This is another review of a book I read before I knew about Goodreads (maybe it didn't exist in 2008?) It seemed like a good chance to post it.

Away: A Novel
By Amy Bloom
Publisher: Random House, 2007
ISBN: 1400063566
256 pages

“Away” by Amy Bloom is a modern classic. It is the Odyssey, with the part of Odysseus played by Lillian Leyb, a young Russian Jew in the 1920’s. In her little village of Turov her mother, father, husband, and, presumably, her toddler daughter, Sophie, are slaughtered in a Pogrom. Unwilling to admit Sophie’s death she searches frantically only to be told by a neighbor that she had seen the little girl in the river.

With nothing left to remain in Russia for, Lillian begins a heart-rending journey that takes her from Russia to New York City to Alaska. She does what she has to do to survive in this strange new world, where she doesn’t understand the language or the customs. Survival isn’t always pretty. A joyful day comes that she is told Sophie is alive, rescued by villagers who fled with her to Siberia. Lillian leaves New York instantly, to find her daughter even though it means crossing the United States with just the clothes on her back and maps given her by an old Jew who secretly loves her. The maps point the way to Alaska, the Bering Strait, and Siberia. She walks. She walks through mud, snow, mosquitoes, filth, and violence into love with a lonely man. When she becomes lost in a snowstorm he goes into the blizzard to search for her and Lillian loses once again.

This is a story of a mother’s love, of the indomitable courage of a young woman who didn’t set out to be a hero, of determination in the face of the impossible. There is love in this book but no romance. Lillian deals with reality, from having her small store of money stolen early on, to being filthy and crawling with head lice, her feet blistered and blackened. “Yes,” you will think, “this is exactly what it would be like to walk, owning nothing, helped by no one, from New York to Alaska.” And you will wonder every step of the way, will she achieve the unachievable and find her little daughter? Will she ever know peace and love?

The style of writing is different, and breaks rules in a way I wouldn't attempt. The looks into the future of the different characters was disconcerting the first time, but after that I liked it. I was astonished that some people saw the character of Lillian as flat, and her quest unbelievable. I couldn't disagree more.

I recommend this book highly for anyone who likes books with some difficulty to them. A beach read, it isn't. This was my first Amy Bloom book; it won’t be the last.
(less)

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
AWAY A NOVEL	7	86	Oct 05, 2011 04:56pm
AWAY A NOVEL	1	29	Sep 18, 2007 01:06pm
AWAY A NOVEL	1	9	Sep 18, 2007 01:06pm

combine
Other Editions (22)

More editions...

Genres

Historical Fiction

105 users

Book Club

54 users

Literature > Jewish

13 users

Cultural > Russia

12 users

Novels

12 users

Adult

11 users

Literary Fiction

10 users

Adult Fiction

10 users

Contemporary

7 users

New York

4 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Songs for the Butcher's Daughter
by Peter Manseau
Wingshooters
by Nina Revoyr
Brookland
by Emily Barton
The House on Fortune Street
by Margot Livesey
Finn
by Jon Clinch

About Amy Bloom

Amy Bloom is the author of "Come to Me," a National Book Award finalist; "A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You," nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award; "Love Invents Us"; and "Normal." Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Short Stories, The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, and many other anthologies here and abroad. She has wri...more

More about Amy Bloom...

Books by Amy Bloom

Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Away

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Away

“Everyone has two memories. The one you can tell and the one that is stuck to the underside of that, the dark, tarry smear of what happened.” — 31 people liked it

“The past is a candle at great distance: too close to let you quit, too far to comfort you.” — 17 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Away
avg rating	preview: Away Goodreads rating: 3.32 (6586 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217086.Away?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320514156l/217086.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217086.Away?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Away by Amy Bloom[/url]

Away

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website