Long Way From Home

Synopsis

Frederick Busch's previous best seller, Closing Arguments, was hailed as one of the most powerful novels of the year. Long Way from Home takes up where Closing Arguments left off. Relentless in its psychological and narrative drive, it is a profoundly contemporary novel about marriage, family, adoption, divorce - and the terrible nightmare of a child left in jeopardy. After Sarah abandons her family to search for her biological mother, her husband deposits their son with his in-laws and embarks on a self-destructive trip across the country to recover his wife. Sarah, heading in a different direction, locates her natural mother, an itinerant nurse and dispenser of herbal remedies named Gloria, who evinces a pronounced interest in her grandson. Alarmed, Sarah returns home - but not before Gloria has kidnapped the emotionally distraught boy. Sarah and her adoptive mother, Lizzie, must then set out in a desperate attempt to regain the child. Frederick Busch's compelling novel is the tale of a family under siege, the account of the accumulating results of one desperate act taken by a wife/daughter/mother, and the story of a child at the mercy of his own disintegrating family. It triumphantly demonstrates that Frederick Busch is at the top of his craft.