Walking through London, Stella comes across a man who takes her back to an unbearable moment in her past. This encounter disturbs her so much that she immediately leaves work and, without telling anyone, she settles in a remote place in Scotland; Only her unpredictable sister Nina, to whom she has been very close since she was a child, will know where to find her. On the other side of the world, in Hong Kong, Jake and his girlfriend are enjoying the massive Chinese New Year celebration when an accident occurs. Stella and Jake don't know each other, but they are both running away from their lives: Jake is looking for a place so remote that it doesn't appear on any map, and Stella is hiding from something whose meaning only her sister can understand. Unpublished in Spanish, The Distance That Separates Us – Maggie O'Farrell's third novel, published for the first time in 2004 – already explores some of the themes that will be fundamental in the work of the author of Hamnet and The Married Portrait: emotional ties, the weight of memories and the need for independence. A captivating story about how family shapes our lives, and about how difficult it is, no matter how hard we try, to leave our origins behind.
