“Far and Away” is as large as life, as its Texas setting might imply, but it’s also filled with art and culture, as one might presume from the other setting in Berlin. Amy Poeppel is an equal opportunity author; she’s brutally frank about the Texas heat in the summer, and she’s equally upfront about culture shock an American might experience in Germany. This novel is touching and tender, but it’s also quirky and filled with misunderstandings and missed opportunities. There’s humor and there’s deception, but most of all there’s love of family.
Greta and Lucy are the main characters, and they are very different types of women. Greta is an art collector, she works for those wealthy families who want to build art collections, and she’s a very formal, proper German woman who follows the rules. Lucy, on the other hand, is a designer who works for a boutique hotel chain. She has three kids, a very laid-back Texas lifestyle, has adopted three cats and two dogs, and lives in a very modern house her husband built in her parents’ back yard. Family is very important to both Greta and Lucy, but that’s pretty much all they have in common.
When Lucy’s oldest child, Jack, creates a mathematical formula (about the popular girls at school) that is misunderstood, he gets expelled from high school. Mere days before graduation. He’s worried that MIT will decide not to let him attend college there in the fall. The small-knit community in their suburb is getting nasty about Jack’s formula (because they think it’s something it’s not) and Lucy’s husband is in New Mexico in a “spaceship” that is replicating being on Mars. He’s incommunicado for months, and Lucy needs him now.
In the meantime, Greta’s husband Otto was supposed to be getting a sabbatical to go to New York, which was perfect because their daughter Emmi was going to be working for a law firm there during the summer. Greta looked forward to spending time with Emmi. But Otto’s sabbatical is canceled, and without consulting Greta, he takes a temporary position in Dallas. Now Greta must find a place for them to live in Dallas instead of New York. Her sister suggests a house swap and puts out the request on her Instagram feed.
Lucy is connected to Greta’s sister from her time abroad in college in Germany, and when she sees the house swap idea, she decides that it’s the answer to their problem. She can get Jack away for the summer and go back to Berlin, which she loved when she was younger. So she agrees to the house swap, and Lucy, Jack, and the eight-year-old twins set off for Europe.
Misunderstanding abound, but we are immediately drawn into the drama. The narrative is replete with situations we can understand; people who are all too prepared to believe the worst, even of a kind boy they’ve known for his whole life. The differences in culture between the formal Germans and the relaxed, casual nature of Americans is fascinating to read about. Both women have their flaws, but those foibles only serve to make them more human and more relatable. Greta and Lucy are loyal friends, brilliant at what they do, and both ultimately, through this house swap, find what they need in order to be whole.
This may be the quintessential summer novel because it’s filled with humor, family, and friendships; but most of all, it’s about two women who, through the trials and tribulations of their summer travels, come to realize what’s really important, as women, as mothers, as lovers, and as friends.
This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.