"An enlightening story of a family divided by war..."
Reviewed by Dot Dittman
Posted August 26, 2014
Women's Fiction Contemporary | Women's Fiction Historical
I only have one negative comment about FROM A DISTANCE. I
will state it now and be done with it. The
lighthouse on the cover of the book does not have red
stripes on it like the one in the story does. That being
said, I have only praise for what Raffaella Barker wrote
between the covers.
April, 1946, World War II is over and the soldiers are
finally coming home. Michael disembarks from a troop ship
in the harbor of Southampton. Having survived the war when
so many, including his brother did not, Michael feels
unworthy to re-build a happy life. Instead of taking the
train to his home in Norfolk, he impulsively boards a train
for opposite direction—to Cornwall. The consequences of
that action have far-reaching results.
Fifty or so years later, a mysterious stranger comes to
Norfolk to half-heartedly claim an inheritance— a de-
commissioned lighthouse. Kit--short for
Christopher—illuminates the lives of all his new Norfolk
friends. He is the one who shows the way to all the others;
the one who makes Luisa visible again, who helps them
realize their dreams. He is unaware that this will be his
role.
Raffaella Barker shifts the focus between the post-war
artists' colony in St. Ives and present day Norfolk
flawlessly. This shift is echoed in a theme that is ever
present in the book--that of perspective. As Luisa, one of
the
Norfolk people, thinks what she sees and hears isn't what
someone else might see and hear.
Throughout the book, the spotlight is placed on
individuals, their lives, their choices, and the impact of
their decisions on others. It is only after the whole book
has been read that we can step way back and see the big
picture. We can only do that FROM A DISTANCE.
(I can't believe that I wrote the entire review without any
mention of the references throughout of Virginia Woolf's
book, To the Lighthouse. They are very discreetly done, but
any reader of Ms. Woolf will be able to spot them and
recognize some of the common threads in both books.
Definitely a bonus!)
SUMMARY
In April 1946 Michael returns from war and finds he cannot
face the life that awaits him at home. Impulsively he leaps
on a train to the western tip of Cornwall, and in doing so
changes his destiny. He finds himself in a bohemian colony
of artists gathered on the Cornish coast, and his fate is
shaped by his heart, his new environment, and the fragmented
Britain to which he has returned.
More than fifty years later, a man arrives in Norfolk to
claim—reluctantly—his inheritance: an abandoned lighthouse,
half hidden in the shadows of the past, now ready to cast
its beam forward. Kit, a successful businessman, is fairly
certain he wants no part in this legacy.
In a farmhouse, a woman falters in the middle of her life.
Louisa’s children are leaving home and the constant push and
pull of family life has turned like the tide of the Norfolk
sea—she is suspended, without direction. When Kit and Louisa
meet, neither can escape the consequences of Michael’s
split-second decision all those years ago.
Moving between the postwar artists’ colony in Cornwall and
present-day Norfolk, Raffaella Barker’s new novel explores
the secrets and flaws that can shape generations. From a
Distance is a nuanced and compelling story of human
connection and our desire to belong.
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