Away

 Away by Jane Urquhart

A haunting story of Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine and building a new life in Canada, haunting in that it stays with you and in the supernatural aspect of it. 

Young Mary is so captivated by a sailor washed up on shore that she changes her name to his last whispered word: Moira. After he dies, he continues to appear to her. For a time she withdraws  into her own thoughts and imaginings of him, with the older folks saying in hushed voices that she's "away", a term used to describe someone who's been taken by the spirits or faeries or whatever it is they believe "takes" people.  

For a while she comes back from wherever she's been, marries, has children, and sets sail for Canada, but there the dead sailor calls to her from the water and she goes "away" again. In time, one of her children is also influenced by whatever force has his mother in its grasp. I think we are meant to find the spirituality in the novel beautiful but it had such a destructive effect on everyone around her that it was only tragic instead.  

The story covers several generations, going back and forth from Mary's time to that of her great-granddaughter, with the latter part of the book covering the years much more quickly. The writing is lovely and the story interesting in its portrayal of starting over in a new country with nothing - their first night in Canada was spent in the woods under a few branches for shelter - but I can't say I liked it. And yet there's something about it, a tone, a breathlessness the author creates by pulling you in and leaving you suspended there without answers, that tugs at me and makes me think about reading it again. 

Whether I do or not, I hope one of you will and then come back and tell me what you think about it. I'd love to hear your insights.