So Far Away

April 9, 2012
“Solace,” the characters in Moore’s touching second novel (after The Arrivals) find, “can come from unlikely sources.” Widow Kathleen Lynch is lonely and heartbroken, unable to stop ruminating on her missing daughter, who ran away as a teenager. Working at the Massachusetts Archives, Kathleen meets Natalie Gallagher, an awkward, sad 13-year-old. The girl’s parents are separated, her father distant, her mother depressed and emotionally absent, leaving her alone to fend off two relentless cyberbullies, one of whom was her former best friend. Natalie and Kathleen are brought together by Natalie’s research into family history for a school project and the discovery of an old family diary; written in the 1970s, it details the life of an Irish woman in American since 1925 and builds to a gripping secret. Natalie and Kathleen, two people in need, reach out to each other, but it takes lessons learned from the past to help them move forward. This sweet and thoughtful novel is both tense and elegiac, exploring the damage we inflict on ourselves and each other, and the strength it takes to heal. Agent: Elizabeth Weed, Weed Literary.

May 1, 2012
After a mild-mannered family-dramedy debut (The Arrivals, 2011), Moore gets way more intense in a novel that mingles the stories of a cyberbullied high school student, a guilt-ridden archivist and an Irish maid in the 1920s. It's unusual for a 13-year-old to be poking around the Massachusetts Archives, especially since she's come to Boston on the bus all the way from Newburyport. But what really attracts Kathleen Lynch's attention to Natalie Gallagher is that the girl reminds Kathleen of her own daughter Susannah, who got involved in drugs and vanished just before graduating from high school some 10 years ago. Natalie's under pressure too; Kathleen sees a vaguely threatening text on the girl's dropped cell phone, and we quickly learn that Natalie is being bullied by her former BFF Hannah Morgan and Hannah's new pal, the extremely nasty Taylor Grant. Natalie's mother, who's gone practically catatonic since her husband moved out, is in no shape to protect her daughter, and Kathleen's well-meaning attempts to help backfire. A second plot unfolds in the notebook Natalie found in the basement of her family's house and brought to the Archives; it details Bridget O'Connell's experiences in 1925-1926 as a maid to Newburyport's Turner family. Moore's storytelling skills are evident as the tension builds on both fronts. Bridget suffers demeaning treatment from Mrs. Turner and winds up in bed with Dr. Turner, with disastrous consequences. Taylor's persecution escalates, and Natalie feels increasingly isolated as her mother buries herself in work, her father takes a vacation with his new girlfriend, and Kathleen is distracted by a friend whose lover is caught in the Haitian earthquake. Moore is equally skillful in capturing the class tensions of the early 20th century and the scary cruelty of teenage girls amplified by 21st-century technology. The final pages dangle a plethora of loose ends, but they're unlikely to bother readers gripped by the novel's strong emotional content.

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December 1, 2011

Suffering through cyberbullying and her parents' nasty divorce, 13-year-old Natalie Gallagher discovers an old diary in the basement and shares it with an archivist at the Massachusetts State Archives. Moore did nicely with her debut, The Arrivals, so keep an eye on this one.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2012
In her second novel, after The Arrivals (2011), Moore wields a powerfully emotive style, not unlike that of Francine Prose, in which she displays both deep compassion and winning humor. Miserable 13-year-old Natalie Gallagher and lonely archivist Kathleen Lynch make a life-changing connection at the Massachusetts State Archives when Natalie brings in an old journal for a school project. It is the diary of an Irish servant from the 1920s rendered in indecipherable handwriting. Kathleen is immediately struck by Natalie's vulnerability, which achingly reminds her of her own daughter, who ran away from home when she was 17. As the two labor to transcribe the diary, Kathleen discovers that high-school freshman Natalie is dealing with her parents' divorce while also trying to fend off the cyberbullying of two classmates, one of whom used to be her best friend. Kathleen is not about to let this chance at redemption pass her by, for she is still eaten up by guilt over her failure to recognize that her own daughter was heavily into drugs. Moore relays not only their affecting relationship but also the compelling story of the diarist, who was badly used by her wealthy employer. A beautifully told story of human fallibility and connection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)