The Furthest Distance

by Lucy Caldwell

Summer 1978, and five-year-old Brooklyn is on her first trip to Northern Ireland. Her daddy's happy to be going home; her mommy's not: she's dreading going back to the place she's tried her whole life to leave behind. The one thing they agree on is that the train journey from Belfast to Derry is the most beautiful you'll ever make. Just past Castlerock the train thunders between cliff and rocky shore and waves break right up against the tracks. The long journey is almost worth it for those moments alone, they tell her. But for Brooklyn, destined to spend intermittent summers travelling the same route with her mother's frustrated feminism and her father's unfulfilled dreams for stardom, the point of a journey is simply its destination. Until the day when a brief encounter sends her own life in a new direction...'The Furthest Distance' is a sad, funny, moving meditation on the journeys we make and on how, finally, the furthest distances we travel are those between people.

Genres: Fiction

126 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely little novella - the five chapters are based around five journeys made at different times, all along the railway route from Belfast to Derry, by the same girl or woman at different times in her life. Through the stories we learn about what has happened in the lives of her parents through her eyes (they are exiled Ulster folk living in the US). Possibly the last chapter is a little weaker, although it serves to bring the story back to where we started, only with the next generation. I haven't come across this press before but the book is beautifully produced - small hardback, patterned endpapers, decent paper, lovely size for carrying around with you and reading at the bus stop. (There's one place where a line is repeated, and a bit later on a line is missed out. It gives the production of the book a real "artisan" feel - all that is lacking is signature statements!) Each chapter has a picture of a steam engine at the beginning (which is anachronistic considering the first story is set in 1978, but charming nevertheless). There are a few other illustrations throughout. The NI/troubles background is only very lightly touched on. Nice accidental find in the public library - where, incidentally, it was on the "classics" shelf! ☺

[Angelique · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love Lucy Caldwell and loved this little guy. For such a short book, it tells a big story. The only thing I'd say is that just because someone is from Northern Ireland does not mean they need to be all 'Norn' Ir'. It felt really unnecessary, being as both characters probably wouldn't talk like that anyways!