Changes

On the other side of the world, whilst Jake awakens in a hospital to the news that Lucy is dead and his girlfriend is dying, Stella moves through her flat, sweating with fear; the face of the red-headed man is everywhere she looks. Stubbornly ignoring a persistently ringing phone that she knows will be her sister Nina, Stella hastily packs a bag; clothes, a jacket, a map, her wallet and a compass. Once she is in her car, Stella begins to compose herself and when she sees a motorway sign saying "Scotland, The North", the beginnings of a smile spread across her face as she accelerates, alone, into a future that is also her past.

''The Distance Between Us'' is beautifully written, switching deftly between the present and the past, interlacing the sequence of events so that no explanation of either is required. O'Farrell's characters are deeply, humanly flawed and all the more credible for it. I fell a little bit in love with Jake, his values and honour making him terribly unhappy as he tries to do the right and best thing and I became persistently stymied by Stella and her stubborn streak a mile wide, her resistance to the rest of the world and the people in it. I think I was meant to, which means a tale well told by Ms. O'Farrell.