The Long and Faraway Gone: A Novel
WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD, THE MACAVITY AWARD, THE ANTHONY AWARD, AND THE BARRY AWARD FOR BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
NOMINATED FOR THE 2015 LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE
With the compelling narrative tension and psychological complexity of the works of Laura Lippman, Dennis Lehane, Kate Atkinson, and Michael Connelly, Edgar Award-nominee Lou Berney’s The Long and Faraway Gone is a smart, fiercely compassionate crime story that explores the mysteries of memory and the impact of violence on survivors—and the lengths they will go to find the painful truth of the events that scarred their lives.
In the summer of 1986, two tragedies rocked Oklahoma City. Six movie-theater employees were killed in an armed robbery, while one inexplicably survived. Then, a teenage girl vanished from the annual State Fair. Neither crime was ever solved.
Twenty-five years later, the reverberations of those unsolved cases quietly echo through survivors’ lives. A private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt’s latest inquiry takes him back to a past he’s tried to escape—and drags him deeper into the harrowing mystery of the movie house robbery that left six of his friends dead.
Like Wyatt, Julianna struggles with the past—with the day her beautiful older sister Genevieve disappeared. When Julianna discovers that one of the original suspects has resurfaced, she’ll stop at nothing to find answers.
As Wyatt's case becomes more complicated and dangerous, and Julianna seeks answers from a ghost, their obsessive quests not only stir memories of youth and first love, but also begin to illuminate dark secrets of the past. But will their shared passion and obsession heal them, or push them closer to the edge? Even if they find the truth, will it help them understand what happened, that long and faraway gone summer? Will it set them free—or ultimately destroy them?
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney
454 pages
What’s it about?
This book simultaneously tells of two crimes that take place in Oklahoma City in the summer of 1986. Six people are brutally murdered during an armed robbery at a movie theatre. That same summer a teenage girl goes missing at the fair and is never found. Twenty-five years later the survivors of these crimes are still struggling to make sense of it all.
What did I think?
It's a good one. Both crimes are not fully understood, so we are swept up in not only two mysteries, but also in the lives of the survivors.
Should you read it?
I would recommend this one! Another good beach read.
Quote-
“Wyatt didn’t think the cop was dumb. The cop, like everyone, was just keeping his finger on the pulse of his own self-interest. He had real crimes to solve, real criminals to catch, so he saw the evidence in front of him the way he wanted to see it. Humans, by nature, did this all the time. They wanted something, so they found reasons to support that desire. And then they convinced themselves that the reasons came first, that the reasons led to the desire and not the other way around. “
Question-
Which storyline was your favorite?
If you like this try-
The Last Child by John Hart
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
The Round House by Louise Erdich
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.