Breakwater Books
Book Details
Away from Everywhere
Author(s): Chad Pelley
Genre(s): Fiction
Publish Date: 2009-10-01
ISBN: 1-55081-265-3
EAN: 978-1-55081-265-7
Softcover: $19.95 
Brothers Owen and Alex Collins are brought together when mental illness claims their father and sets off a chain reaction of unrelated, heart-breaking events. Both tender and bold in its delivery, Away from Everywhere cuts no corners in telling the story of their crushing childhood, the reasons the brothers become different men, and the unthinkable act of love that tears them apart.
Part warped love story, part family tragedy, Away from Everywhere is a heart-stomping pageturner.
*Visit the author's webpage for interactive book club questions, to watch the book trailer, to listen to the unofficial book soundtrack, and more http://chadpelley.wordpress.com/awayfromeverywhere/
Reviews:
“Gripping from page one, Away from Everywhere is a finely crafted novel from one of the most talented young writers to come out of Newfoundland in recent years.”
- Kenneth J. Harvey, Internationally bestselling author of Inside and Blackstrap Hawco
“This emotionally wrenching story made me cry. It also made me lament not having written it …. His writing is both articulate and lyrical … A fascinating and tender portrait of a soul in torment.”
- M.T. Dohaney, award-winning author of The Corrigan Women
“With six lifetimes worth of blood, violence, delusion and broken love, this is no redemption story, and will not give you sweet dreams.”
- Kathleen Winter, award-winning author of boYs
“It is a book that will continue to call you back to it … a book you could read many times over … a book that requires a lot of pauses. Pauses to think, reflect, discuss, and most importantly, breathe. Pelley’s great talent lies with his descriptions … the attention to detail continues throughout the novel.
- Kathleen Spencer, Ryerson Free Press
“Chad Pelley’s first novel explores the nature of mistakes alongside the devastating errors of human choice. What shines from this novel is Pelley’s ability to convey his lead character’s pain and inner turmoil; his misery lifts real from the page. We should look forward to the honing and unfolding of this writer’s evolving voice.”
- Bruce Johnson, Atlantic Books Today
“Complex themes woven tightly together … this is a story about brothers, a story of families, entwined and unbound. It is a story of longing, and romance. And it is a story of consequence. There is a streamlined dynamic to the structure and the prose, as riveting and inevitible as a car flying off the wet highway. And the structure is tightly built as a racecar chasis. [A] very good book.”
- Joan Sullivan, The Telegram
“Brilliantly crafted through thought provoking sentence structure Away from Everywhere will make any reader believe they are one with what they are reading … [a] masterpiece.”
- Ivana Pelisek, Interoobang
“It opens up in the aftermath of a car crash, and does not let up from that brutal, mid-crisis opening. Awayfrom Everywhere is dotted with slamming phones, speeches regretted after-the-fact, and the pain of silences.”
- Ashley Fitzpatrick, The Telegram
“Chad Pelley’s new novel is a beautiful bruising experience … There is humor in these pages as well as tragedy and deep humanity, all tied together with great storytelling. Read it.”
-Samuel Martin, Dark Art Cafe
“Award-winning short story scribe Chad Pelley has gone all-out in his first full-length novel Away From Everywhere … [a] stunning and somber portrait of the family ties that can both bind us and tear us apart.”
- Stephen Clare, The Chronicle Herald
“From word one, a description of a bloody and harrowing car accident, there is such a volume of tragedy in Chad Pelley’s ambitious debut novel, it feels dense and weighty, like a Paul Haggis movie script... where the novel succeeds is in expressing Owen’s interior pain, his wine-sopping self-destruction—not an easy feat. Pelley is a gifted writer—who, no doubt, we will hear a lot from in the future.”
-Sean Flinn, The Coast
Click play to watch the book trailer:
