Book review: A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman
Genre: Historical fiction
Release date: March 3, 2026
Goodreads rating: 4.27
My rating: 3.75
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The Light Between Oceans is a novel I read many years ago that stays with me even today, so when I heard that M.L. Stedman was publishing a new novel, I jumped on it!
A Far-Flung Life is another great (but deeply heart-wrenching) novel. Set in 1950s Western Australia, it opens with a devastating car accident that shatters the MacBride family: a father and son lost, a surviving son with a traumatic brain injury, a daughter trapped by their trauma, and a supportive community impacted by their own respective traumas. Page after page, you witness how grief and trauma shape people, and how ‘untellable’ secrets become barriers to living.
I loved Stedman’s use of the Australian setting to help highlight the contrasting realities of life: it’s goodness (the pastoral setting), it’s cold harsh realities (the mining settlement, the storms), and its instinctive fight for survival (Jemima’s tree).
The story is not easy to read, it is devastating. Nobody comes out unscathed and at times, it’s hard to know who to blame or support. But it is a reminder that sometimes, we simply have to live the life we’ve been given.
Two heart-tugging ideas really stayed with me. Young Andy’s concept of a “forgetment”, a word he makes up to capture ‘the opposite of a memory’. And Rosie’s ritual of wishing for “yawa” (‘away’ spelled backwards) by writing something painful down and burning it in hopes of making it disappear.
Get ready for an emotional story that will leave emotional scars.
Thank you to Simon Schuster Canada and NetGalley for granting me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
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