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Travelling in the Dark
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Travelling back to her home town with her young son, Sarah is ready to face up to what she ran away from ten years ago.
As delays and diversions force her to return to well-known places from her youth, Sarah reflects on the relationships with her family and the events of the past that have shaped her present.
Set in the wild, beautiful and unreliable landscape of southern Ne ...more
As delays and diversions force her to return to well-known places from her youth, Sarah reflects on the relationships with her family and the events of the past that have shaped her present.
Set in the wild, beautiful and unreliable landscape of southern Ne ...more
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Sarah and her young son leave London for Sarah’s home country, New Zealand. Sarah wants to reconnect with an old friend, to make sure that the past can no longer haunt her. Her country is in a dark situation, following the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch that caused the death of 185 people. Her memories of troubled, life-draining family relationships are an additional devastating weight on her shoulders. The story doesn’t sound like something I would choose to read but the beautiful cover, the t
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This is the second novella I’ve read in the series published by Fairlight Books and it was a delightful discovery. We follow Sarah on a nostalgic journey across the south island of New Zealand, the places she grew up in and fled ten years ago. Recently split from her partner in England, she has returned with her eight-year-old son to visit the man she loved and lost as a teenager. Very short chapters alternate between the present day journey and the events that led up to her departure, including
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Emma Timpany's Travelling in the Dark is another novella published as a series of five by the quite wonderful Fairlight Moderns press. In Travelling in the Dark, Timpany's protagonist, Sarah, is travelling back to her native New Zealand from her home in England, accompanied by her young son. Her husband has recently left her, and she is making the journey in order to show her son where she spent her own childhood, and to meet an old friend with whom she has a lot of history.
Travelling in the Dar ...more
Travelling in the Dar ...more
I didn't get this book.
I feel I have waited for the entire book for something to happen, which it didn't happen. The story it is also a bit unrealistic for me: Sarah has pretty much only one friend, who is nasty and selfish with her and with everybody else. She doesn't say any good thing about her, she doesn't actually like anything about her, and she still defines her as her best friend. Same thing for her sister and mother and father. They are all terrible and constantly treat her like an idio ...more
I feel I have waited for the entire book for something to happen, which it didn't happen. The story it is also a bit unrealistic for me: Sarah has pretty much only one friend, who is nasty and selfish with her and with everybody else. She doesn't say any good thing about her, she doesn't actually like anything about her, and she still defines her as her best friend. Same thing for her sister and mother and father. They are all terrible and constantly treat her like an idio ...more
I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Fairlight Books via NetGalley.
On the surface, Travelling in the Dark by Emma Timpany is a story about a young woman named Sarah travelling back to her home in New Zealand for the first time with her son after years of estrangement from family and the end of her rocky marriage. The narrative is engaging, and the author’s choice to alternate the narrative between past and present with each chapter builds the emotional tension, rather than feeling ...more
On the surface, Travelling in the Dark by Emma Timpany is a story about a young woman named Sarah travelling back to her home in New Zealand for the first time with her son after years of estrangement from family and the end of her rocky marriage. The narrative is engaging, and the author’s choice to alternate the narrative between past and present with each chapter builds the emotional tension, rather than feeling ...more
The beautiful writing pulled me in from the very beginning. I love how Emma Timpany weaves the two storylines, the past and the present. Sarah’s memories are vivid, and the descriptions of New Zealand are so alive. The book is structured in 45 short chapters, and I kept telling myself I’ll read just one more, and before I knew it I had reached the end!
A beautiful moving novella of the past & present Sarah & her son are traveling to her hometown her past her memories that creep into the present set in New Zeland.a book to savor...
This is a wonderful book about a painful walk down memory lane, given an extra layer of interest given that Sarah takes her son with her on this important, intense journey back in her hometown New Zealand. An earthquake brings her back to her home country after many, many years and being back brings back many of the important moments from her past which have been equal in the pain they've caused and in the way they shaped the choices that made her move abroad to begin with.
We learn about Sarah' ...more
We learn about Sarah' ...more
This novella is set in the scenic landscape of New Zealand and talks about Sarah's journey back home. She comes back home after many years with her little boy and a lot of demons from the past come back to haunt her..
This story is sad, melancholic and extremely beautiful in the way that it describes the stunning landscape of New Zealand. It manages to evoke varied emotions in the few pages that it encompases and there are moments when I felt quite terrible for Sarah. Do pick this up if you want ...more
This story is sad, melancholic and extremely beautiful in the way that it describes the stunning landscape of New Zealand. It manages to evoke varied emotions in the few pages that it encompases and there are moments when I felt quite terrible for Sarah. Do pick this up if you want ...more
Throughout this book I was reminded of Veronique Olmi's Beside the Sea, but without the punch to the gut. It is far tamer but had the potential to be so much more.
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Moody and full of dread and memory, this is my favorite kind of book. The writing is spare and full of lovely details, many of which--as a person who's never been to New Zealand--I enjoyed the sound of even though I was unable to understand what they were (kowhai tree, wax-eye, pittosporum, etc). I'm going to track down the other titles in the Fairlight Moderns series.
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This is a well-written book: the plot was gripping and surprising, the interweaving of the two timelines suspenseful, and the author's descriptive writing is to die for! I've never visited NZ but now feel I have. So evocative!
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I really enjoyed this book. I read the whole book in one go on a train journey - one of the advantages of novellas - and became very involved with the characters. The story follows Sarah, who has been in exile from her home in New Zealand for many years, on a journey back to the place where she grew up. She is accompanied by her young son, who seems largely oblivious to her growing anxiety, which is more apparent the closer she gets to her destination.
As might be expected from Emma Timpany, this ...more
As might be expected from Emma Timpany, this ...more
Sarah is travelling back to New Zealand with her child, pulled back by her memories and the need to confront her past. A past that includes a mother and sister who took every advantage of her, old relationships, and the fear of earthquake.
A novella that takes the reader on a journey alongside Sarah, an evocative journey, captu in the Nee Zealand landscape alongside emotions and memories. Beautiful and haunting.
A novella that takes the reader on a journey alongside Sarah, an evocative journey, captu in the Nee Zealand landscape alongside emotions and memories. Beautiful and haunting.
Protagonist Sarah McLeod hasn't been back to New Zealand for ten years, but she's finally decided to return for awhile, accompanied by her eight year-old son (referred to only as "the child"). Sarah's husband left her soon after the child's birth, and although it's not clear what her life has been like during the ensuing years, she does have some old and painful history to confront. She also has a male friend (Patrick) whom she is longing to see.
After long flights from England to New Zealand's S ...more
After long flights from England to New Zealand's S ...more
My third book from the series of fairlights. Love the size and design of all of them and wanted to stick to the series. Lovely short easy reads, that I started reading during my final year of uni and in this lockdown period. This is my least favourite so far. Though I loved the descriptive writing and I was intrigued throughout to continue, I wasn’t completely hooked at the beginning and found the present chapters stronger. I got confused with all the characters names to begin with as the charac
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I received my copy of this book for review via Netgalley.
On a journey through her home country of New Zealand, we follow Sarah (& her young son) as she makes her way to visit an old friend in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. On this literal journey of hers, Sarah also finds herself on an emotional journey with the familiar landscape of her youth evoking memories that she’d perhaps rather have left in the past – with her story unfolding in alternating chapters of past & present.
Althoug ...more
On a journey through her home country of New Zealand, we follow Sarah (& her young son) as she makes her way to visit an old friend in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. On this literal journey of hers, Sarah also finds herself on an emotional journey with the familiar landscape of her youth evoking memories that she’d perhaps rather have left in the past – with her story unfolding in alternating chapters of past & present.
Althoug ...more
One of the stories in The Lost of Syros features again in Timpany’s novella Travelling in the Dark. It chronicles Sarah’s journey through her struggles within a difficult family and love lost and found. Set mostly in earthquake torn southern New Zealand it chronicles her own tremors and aftershocks, youthful escape to Greece, romance and life as a young mother in London. Her return, travelling through New Zealand with her young son and as a now single mother is often painful and overpowering, wh
...more
Sarah is making a long overdue journey. With her eight-year-old son beside her, she is on a long-haul flight from her home in London, ‘slipping across countries through the shimmering boundaries of time’, heading back to southern New Zealand where she grew up. As she nears her destination, Sarah must tackle memories from her childhood, recollections of a hard, unfair time that, even now, refuses to loosen its claws completely. Emma Timpany’s evocative but bleak novella, part of the Fairlight Mod
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Oct 02, 2019
Maja
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This is a contemporary fiction book about Sarah, a young woman who is travelling back to her home town in New Zealand together with her son. During that trip she revisit places from her youth and reflects on old relationships and events.
I liked the setting of the book and I think the way it was written was also interesting as one chapter was always about what’s happening at present time and the next one would then be the main characters reflection on the past. However, the ending was very disap ...more
I liked the setting of the book and I think the way it was written was also interesting as one chapter was always about what’s happening at present time and the next one would then be the main characters reflection on the past. However, the ending was very disap ...more
Travelling in the Dark was a thoughtful read that switched between the past and present as Sarah made her way back to her hometown while trying to deal with the events that had seen her leave it in the first place. I by no means disliked it--the prose was well written and the pacing nicely handled--but somehow it never completely gripped me, and when it ended, I felt like there was more I still wanted to know and see. A nice novella, with some beautiful descriptive passages, but it lacked that h
...more
This little novella has left me feeling torn. I loved the descriptions of the New Zealand countryside and the spattering of folklore, however, the predominantly dislikable characters, combined with an unsatisfying conclusion riddled with loose ends, have left me feeling dissatisfied. I felt that the book started strong, almost like a mini-collection of short stories as we get snippets of Sarah's past, but didn't much escalate to any sort of grand finale, instead tapering out.
So saying, Timpany's ...more
So saying, Timpany's ...more
I received an e-arc through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
This is my second novella from the collection and I have to sadly admit that they might be not for me. I love the description of New Zealand through Sarah's journey and the stories she told her son. She's been through so much and at the end, after reading all about her past and scars, I'm so proud of her for making this journey. However, never enjoyed children in books and this book is one of them. I also don't like Patrick an ...more
This is my second novella from the collection and I have to sadly admit that they might be not for me. I love the description of New Zealand through Sarah's journey and the stories she told her son. She's been through so much and at the end, after reading all about her past and scars, I'm so proud of her for making this journey. However, never enjoyed children in books and this book is one of them. I also don't like Patrick an ...more
Well written, well paced, and with well-developed characters but in the end Sarah never endeared herself to me. New Zealand is well-evoked without the romanticism that usually accompanies non-New-Zealander prose which personally carried me through the novella to the end. However, the ending was so dissatisfying as to cast a pall on the rest of the novella.
Emma Timpany’s novella, Travelling in the Dark, is the slow-moving story of Sarah’s return to New Zealand, where she grew up. She’s on holiday with her young son. The story takes place on the road journey to meet a friend she knew long ago. Interspersed with this present-day trip are Sarah’s memories of childhood.
The writing is beautiful, tempered, following Sarah’s interior and exterior journeys: “When everything else is gone they are all that we have left. Patrick was never a romantic, but ev ...more
The writing is beautiful, tempered, following Sarah’s interior and exterior journeys: “When everything else is gone they are all that we have left. Patrick was never a romantic, but ev ...more
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Emma was born and grew up in the far south of New Zealand. She lives in Cornwall.
Her novella, Travelling in the Dark, won the Hall and Woodhouse DLF Writing Prize 2019. It was long-listed for the Not the Booker Prize 2018 and selected as a Big Issue Summer Read 2018.
Her short story collection The Lost of Syros was long-listed for the Edge Hill Prize 2015. She is co-editor of Cornish Short Stories: ...more
Her novella, Travelling in the Dark, won the Hall and Woodhouse DLF Writing Prize 2019. It was long-listed for the Not the Booker Prize 2018 and selected as a Big Issue Summer Read 2018.
Her short story collection The Lost of Syros was long-listed for the Edge Hill Prize 2015. She is co-editor of Cornish Short Stories: ...more
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