Away from You

by Melanie Finn

Ellie's upbringing in colonial Africa in the 1960s and 70s--stiff whiskies, keeping up appearances and English gardens amidst the African Bush--was marked by a troubled relationship with a violent father she didn't really know. So when she returns there after her father's death, for the first time in twenty-five years, it means facing a past she thought she had put behind her. But even as childhood memories threaten to paralyze her, Ellie sets out to discover the dark secret at the heart of her father's life and her parents' marriage, hoping the truth will allow her to break free from the past that has haunted her life.

Genres: Africa, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2004

About the author

Melanie Finn was born and raised in Kenya and the US. She is author of four critically acclaimed "literary thrillers," Away From You (2004), The Gloaming (2016), The Underneath (2018) and The Hare (2021). While working in a remote area of Tanzania as the writer and producer of the DisneyNature flamigo epic, The Crimson Wing, she founded Natron Healthcare, a small charity focused on bringing health education and health service to under resourced communities in that area. She lives with her husband, the wildlife filmmaker Matt Aeberhard, and their twin daughters on a mountainside in northern Vermont.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

I'm a big fan of Melanie Finn's books, having loved The Gloaming and thoroughly enjoyed The Hare. This is her debut novel, and whilst not quite as impressive of her later books is still an accomplished and impressive debut.

[Nancy Traver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working backwards, I started with The Gloaming, the third novel by Melanie Finn, then finishing with her first novel, Away from You (also reading The Hare -- again, out of order). Away from You is clearly autobiographical, based on Finn’s upbringing in Kenya as a privileged, wealthy white girl raised by a black nanny and a host of other exploited house servants. Against this background, the narrator and central character, Ellie Cameron, is abused by her alcoholic, violent father. Her mother stands hopelessly and haplessly by, later explaining every beating by saying, “He didn’t mean it.” Ellie curses her mother silently under her breath, muttering “traitor.” Ellie’s father is having an affair with the next door neighbor, the depressed mother of a severely disabled child. Ellie finds the woman hanged to death in her bedroom, (the death ruled a suicide) but she suspects her father is the real killer. Her mother escapes from the home with her daughter in tow, a few items of clothing and their passports. Ellie is called upon to reckon with her childhood when she receives word that her father has died, leaving her his fortune and a few newspaper clippings, as well as the bitter memories she thought she had flushed from her mind. In addition to being a compelling memoir/novel, this fine book provides an accurate chronicle of whites’ abuse and cruelty toward their African “underlings” during colonial times.

[Jami · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story about a woman raised in Kenya who returns to her home country after her alcoholic and abusive father dies. She is on a quest to determine who he really was, in part to figure out who she really is. As you can probably tell, not exactly a lighthearted read. It is crushingly sad, but the descriptions of the landscape and imagery of Kenya is exceptional. All in all, a very well-written book but I walked away without feeling satisfied and with a very, very heavy heart.

[Florence O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in post-colonial Kenya, a young woman returns to Kenya, her birthplace, to deal with her father's death and her inheritance. She discovers that her parents' lives there had been more complex than she had realized. She searches for answers to questions about their relationships with other "colonialists" and discovers some uncomfortable truths.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young woman Ellie, who is kind of a lost soul, returns to Africa after her fathers death. While there she has so many questions as to what really happened to them as a family and sets out to find the answers.

[Kathie Wilkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I had the book on my To Read List for a while and being a reader new to Melanie Finn, I really didn’t have great expectations from this title. In fact, once I received the book I was startled to see that it WAS a novel. I have a penchant for ex-colonial memoirs and I thought how could a novel do the experience justice? I didn’t think someone could effectively novelize a former African colonial experience upon their unenthusiastic return.
This novel was a very pleasant and pleasurable surprise. Was the novel perfect, no, but it is very good. And while I was expecting Africa and the juxtaposition of colonists and colonized, I found
Finn’s take on a family and a community’s story one that kept me reading and wondering exactly where would the story and the main character go. Don’t expect everything to be tied up in a bow at the ending, Finn leaves some ambiguities making me, as a reader, reflect on how one’s own experiences, relationships and memories can deepen and change over time.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by this author and will definitely be looking for more of her books. The author reminded me of Kate Morton but on a smaller scale. I found myself savoring what was going to happen and putting the book down to digest, and then eager to read on. However it also left me with unanswered questions that I suppose I didn't pick up on. What made her father such a miserable man who took to drinking to rid his mind of his past? Did he kill two of the women he had affairs with or not? If anyone else has read this book and can answer these questions, I'd appreciate it!

Ellie's father dies in the land she grew up on but had long ago fled with her mother. When the lawyer calls her with this news, she decides to fly back to Africa to face her past and try to get answers to why her father was so abusive.

[LeastTorque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent read from this author. I read it concurrently with Wrong’s book about Mobutu and Zaire as part of my spring theme and they complemented each other well. Both painting complex portraits of Africa, both addressing colonialism and its aftermath.

How autobiographical this book is, I do not know. But much clearly comes from her direct experience as a white child in Africa. The arc of the character is beautifully rendered, with the journey of discovery regarding her father having an unexpected twist. So cleverly done and so subtly presented that it is easy to miss if you’re not careful.

I don’t know of many authors who can live up to this author’s protagonists.

[zespri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another 'facing her past' story. When Ellie's father dies in Kenya, she travels back after an absence of 25 years. It has been a chosen exile, as the father she remembers was a violent alcoholic with whom she wanted nothing to do with.

The Kenya she left before independence has changed dramatically, and in her search for answers, Ellie also has to undergo an upheaval to lay her ghosts to rest.

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 on a sentence level, this is beautifully written. Ellie is damaged and shut down and can’t commit to anyone or any place. She returns to Kenya, where she was raised to see to her fathers estate. She was completely estranged from him. She stays to discover the truth behind her memories and to see with the eyes of an adult what she experienced as a child. The weakest part of the book was the last 1/4 or so. The ending was anticlimactic and the change in Ellie was not clearly developed.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I enjoy books about childhoods spent in Africa but feel like I've read better non fiction versions of this story.

[Moyles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but a slow burn doesnt always work. I was slightly disappointed with the ending.

[Kris Kennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great sense of place.

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the evocation of Kenya through landscape.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melanie Finn is an exquisite writer, and often exquisitely painful. Her narrators in this book and in The Gloaming have been through hell and are (kind of, on-again-off-again) on their way back. And the reader is with them every step of the way. So I wouldn't read her if you're looking for something uplifting.
Her descriptions of Africa are rich and earthy and real, and her characterizations of the African people and the white colonialists are packed with mixed emotions, evoking both sympathy and anger from one page to the next. Her exploration of the relationships between African servants and their white bwanas are complex and honest. It's hard not to imagine that this has elements of autobiography in it (Finn spent her childhood in Kenya). The story follows a white woman, Ellie, who was brought up in Africa in the 60s and 70s by a violent alcoholic father and a powerless mother. After living in America for 25 years, she returns after her father's death, hoping to uncover his (and her) mysteries.
The writing might take a little time to get used to. Finn's tenses and perspectives bounce around, but it works for me. Her main protagonists are Ellie and Ellie's mother Helen. The first-person voice of her child-self is particularly effective.
I found the ending just a little iffy, as if she wasn't quite sure where to go with it. But it was satisfying nonetheless.

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story of violence, sadness, and also beauty in 1960s and 1970s colonial Kenya, is a breathtaking plot, with vaguely intriguing characters. However, the pacing of the book was so slow, neigh, nearly absent of pace, that I couldn't finish it. It was full of beautiful language but at the expense of moving forward. I don't have the patience to be halfway through a book and still bored. I'd try another story by Melanie Finn but this one didn't impress me.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the way she depicted the dissolution of Kenya as a parallel to the dissolution of some of the main characters' lives, but felt pretty manipulated by the suspicions that the protagonist's father was a murderer twice over. Her portrayal of him as an alcoholic brute was harrowing enough and true to life enough to need little or no further embellishment to make Ellie's quest for truth understandable.

[Raelop · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was a breath of fresh air without any unrealistic sappy romances or cutsey moments, I found the description of collonial Africa very apt. I loved how the story was crafted in such detail that I could picture every image she described very vividly. Melanie Finn used wonderful impartial, objective language and the experiance of reading this book was eye opening and honest.

[Katrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great quick read. The entangled chapters featuring different times of Ellie's (the main character)life carry you swiftly along with on her realizations about life. The format also allows you a chance to make your own judgements and make you identify with your own experiences.

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The time period is during the Mau Mau revolt. This is a rather depressing book with all characters experiencing distress of some kind. It does not reflect well on Kenya but then again, that time period was a dark and frightening time for all people in Kenya.

[Jude Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this very interesting and compelling - wonderful evocation of setting and sense of detail - but the ending was very disappointing and I felt it was anti-climactic after such a powerful story up until the last section. But I would certainly recommend people to read it.

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Death forces travel & a revisiting of the long buried past in this story by Melanie Finn. Interesting details about British in Kenya & Tanzania before Idi Amin. Will look for more by Melanie Finn since she uses a strong woman's view of things.

[Briana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit, I originally read this book because I know and admire the author - but it's a wonderful book, set in East Africa, about a broken marriage and a daughter's revisiting the past

[Tricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slow going.

So slow going, that I had to stop. This one will be given away. Very boring.

[Sara]

05 long list-orange prize

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir; story of a woman that returns to her childhood home in Africa to deal with unresolved father issues. Good descriptions of Africa in the 1960s and today, otherwise skipable.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautifully written story

[Anne Hilborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only book written about white people in Africa that hasn't made me ashamed to be one of them.

[Grada (BoekenTrol) · Rating 4 out of 5]

review can be read here: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7... or here: http://www.librarything.com/work/2137...

[Julie]

This was a very boring book, I do not recommend it to anyone