Quick Book Review: Away by Amy Bloom

Rating: 4.5/5
I read this in: Dutch (Op zoek), the original language is English
Number of pages: 239
First published: 2007
Genre: historical fiction

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Lillian Leyb, a young Jewish Russian woman whose family is killed by non-Jewish people in her home town, moves to America to find her luck there. It’s 1924 and there are so many immigrants in New York trying to make a living! But soon she finds herself working as a seamstress and becomes the lover of her boss, who buys an apartment for the two of them.

She’s a lot better off than most people, but when she finds out her small daughter might still be alive she wants to return to Russia. Then starts an adventure in which she meets lots of helpful, friendly people as well as the necessary crooks.

I loved reading this book. At first, I wasn’t sure: Lillian as the lover of a rich man in New York, was this going to be a good story? But it turned really good when she started travelling in order to get back to Russia.

The last part of the book is written rather like a summary of the rest of the story and I think I would have liked this to be a more extensive story. On the other hand, it worked for me like this, and extending the book would probably would not have added much to the overall storyline.

Definitely recommended! The story covers an interesting time in American history, with New York full of immigrants, and the West still being developed. Although Lillian lives in poor circumstances during most of the book, there are always people willing to help her out, which is heart-warming. This was counteracted with enough bad people throughout the book that didn’t have Lillian’s best interests at heart, and that made the story so interesting.