The Faraway Nearby

The Faraway Nearby is a lyrical and genre-defying memoir that explores the power of storytelling and the nature of empathy. Using the 'raw materials' of her own life—including three boxes of ripening apricots from her mother's neglected tree, her mother's descent into Alzheimer's, her own battle with illness, and a residency in Iceland—Rebecca Solnit weaves a complex narrative that connects personal experience to a vast array of outside stories. The book spirals out to include reflections on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Che Guevara's time in a leper colony, Arctic explorers, and the art of Georgia O'Keeffe (from whom the title is borrowed). It is an exploration of how stories function as compasses to help us navigate life's difficult passages, examining the intricate connections between warmth and coldness, kindness and imagination, and decay and transformation.

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