Blog Tour – Review: “The Far Away Girl” by Sharon Maas
About The Book
She dreamed of finding a new life…
Georgetown, Guyana 1970. Seven-year-old Rita is running wild in her ramshackle white wooden house by the sea, under the indulgent eye of her absent-minded father. Surrounded by her army of stray pets, free to play where she likes and climb the oleander trees, she couldn’t feel more alive.
But then her new stepmother Chandra arrives and the house empties of love and laughter. Rita’s pets are removed, her freedom curtailed, and before long, there’s a new baby sister on the way. There’s no room for Rita anymore.
With her father distracted by his new family, Rita spends more time alone in her bedroom. Desperate to fill up the hollow inside her, she begins to talk to the only photo she has of her mother Cassie, a woman she cannot remember.
Rita has never known what happened to Cassie, a poor farmer’s daughter from the remote Guyanese rainforest. Determined to find the truth, Rita travels to find her mother’s family in an unfamiliar land of shimmering creeks and towering vines. She finds comfort in the loving arms of her grandmother among the flowering shrubs and trees groaning with fruit. But when she discovers the terrible bruising secret that her father kept hidden from her, will she ever be able to feel happiness again?
A beautiful and inspiring story that will steal your heart and open your eyes. Fans of The Secret Life of Bees, The Vanishing Half and The Other Half of Augusta Hope will be captivated by The Far Away Girl.
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Review
This is my first time reading a novel by Sharon Maas and I enjoyed it. The Far Away Girl is a mixture of Literary and Historical Fiction that follows the main character Rita as she grows up and experiences life, loss, change, and a long journey of self-discovery. Readers follow her narrative from childhood to adulthood and how life’s events shape her into the woman she becomes.
It’s a bit hard to discuss this novel without giving too much away, but I thought that it was a beautiful and bittersweet tale overall. It was hard for me to grasp the story at first since the book moves at a slower place. Once I was a quarter way into the novel significantly picked up. The time jumps were a bit unclear in the beginning but got smoother as the plot progessed. It’s packed with a lot of history that I was unfamiliar with and I was glad I got to learn more about Guyana’s background through reading it. I also liked the subtle shifts in point-of-view to give some of the other secondary characters depth.
Maas is a lyrical writer that gives detailed description to her readers. I felt the sand on my feet when Rita goes to the beach, the tropical climate of the land, and the inner turmoil of her characters. She tackles a lot of topics within the narrative such as race and prejudice. I could feel Rita’s struggle to fit in while also feeling like she has a missing piece of her. She’s different from others and it leaves her feeling conflicted at first and then stronger later in life. I like that she was confident but vulnerable, and most importantly that she never changed herself for anyone. She has an infectious spirit even though she’s dealt with tragedy and obstacles and she refuses to let anyone break her down.
The Far Away Girl is a heartbreaking, powerful, and moving story that I would recommend to those who enjoy thought-provoking Historical Fiction.
Final Verdict:
About The Author
Sharon Maas was born into a prominent political family in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1951. She was educated in England, Guyana, and, later, Germany. After leaving school, she worked as a trainee reporter with the Guyana Graphic in Georgetown and later wrote feature articles for the Sunday Chronicle as a staff journalist.
Her first novel, Of Marriageable Age, is set in Guyana and India and was published by HarperCollins in 1999. In 2014 she moved to Bookouture, and now has ten novels under her belt. Her books span continents, cultures, and eras. From the sugar plantations of colonial British Guiana in South America, to the French battlefields of World War Two, to the present-day brothels of Mumbai and the rice-fields and villages of South India, Sharon never runs out of stories for the armchair traveller.
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