Faraway Smell of Lemon: From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

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I’d had this sitting in my kindle library for I don’t know how long. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up and discovered it was a short story, quite apt for the time of year, and indeed, for this extraordinary year! I'll Be Home for Christmas The most famous boy in the world comes home hoping to escape the madness with a normal family Christmas.

Rachel's books have been translated into thirty-six languages. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards 'New Writer of the Year' in December 2012 and shortlisted for the 'UK Author of the Year' 2014. Rachel has also written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4, including all the Bronte novels. She moved to writing after a long career as an actor, performing leading roles for the RSC, the National Theatre and Cheek by Jowl.We are at the centre of our own stories. And sometimes it is hard to believe that we are not at the centre of other people’s.” My favorite character of the seven stories has to be Binny, a forty-seven year old single mother. She is mentioned in both the first story, “The faraway smell of lemon” and the last one, “Trees“. Her live-in partner, Oliver, has just a few days before Christmas – left her… This is a book of short stories centered on the time between Christmas and New Years, 7 stories with seemingly nothing in common except the picture of a girl in a red coat, an advertisement for something never named. But as each story reveals, there are sometimes connections we never know about with people we only see in passing, as strangers we never meet. It has to be said that I even enjoyed the forward. In it the author describes how the characters in this book were sort of ‘left-over’ from her other books. We readers get a tiny glimpse into the author’s mind and how she views the characters portrayed in her fiction. Peripheral characters in her other books whose appearance in them was very minimal, or cut out altogether. She cared enough about their stories that she felt they needed to be told. And I’m glad she did. In the foreword to this book, Joyce says, 'We are at the centre of our own stories. And sometimes it is hard to believe that we are not at the centre of other people's. But I love the fact that you can brush past a person with your own story, your own life, so big in your mind and at the same time be a simple passer-by in someone else's. A walk-on part.' This is the theme that binds these stories together - they intersect almost imperceptibly, but the link is there, cemented by one recurring image throughout the book, so the book feels whole and not discordant despite the seven divergent story lines.

Maybe Joyce's forte does not lie in writing short stories, because a lot of them felt contrived, unrealistic, and abrupt. There were no explanation to fantastical things, there was no depth to the characters, and we didn't have enough time to become invested in any of the stories. Binny’s heart has been broken. Oliver, her dreamy “out of work” actor boyfriend has fallen for another and moved out. Binny is the type of person who doesn’t show her true feelings, and doesn’t allow herself to cry. She gets on with things. But it’s all bottled up inside her, waiting to erupt. Just in time for Christmas, a heartwarming holiday e-original story by Rachel Joyce, the author of the bestselling The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. It is Christmas Eve and Binny has just four hours in which to make Christmas happen for her children. But it’s raining, her house is falling apart and she’s just been left by her boyfriend who has taken up with another woman. Darting into a doorway to escape an awkward conversation, Binny finds herself in the kind of shop she’d never normally visit. But in among the shelves, she finds a surprising source of peace. A Faraway Smell of Lemon by Rachel Joyce – eBook Details

Here are stories of love, marriage, parenthood, loneliness, despair, angst, and compassion. The characters depicted are so vividly described that you feel you have known them for a long time.

Rachel Joyce, internationally bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Perfect, delivers an unforgettable Christmas story of moving on from lost love, now available exclusively as an e-short.Now the nurse is a nice part for an older woman. She gets a few laughs...But let’s face it, she’s only she only has a few scenes and she’s not Juliet..the actress thinks very carefully about how best to summarize the plot of Romeo and Juliet and then she says, “Well, it’s all about this nurse.

Trees: As if Christmas wasn't wearing enough, now his elderly parent is asking for a hole in the ground … Father and son break old habits and plant a tree to mark the start of the new year. There is some terrific humor in these stories as well, which I always love, and as a special surprise, "The Boxing Day Ball" features Maureen, a young girl going to her first dance, and meeting her future husband, Harold Frye. The stories included in this volume are meticulously wrought, sincere tales of real life. With all of its sadness, joy, struggles, and achievements, they are above all, honest. They make the commonplace seem magical. They make the reader cry, laugh, and feel connected to their fellow humans in a way that makes fiction shine. Trees: A two-fold story. First it's about an elderly father asking his young son to plant some trees. Then it becomes clear this is very closely related to the first story of the collection and we get some closure for Binny. A decent story in itself and very clever to interconnect the stories. PDF / EPUB File Name: A_Faraway_Smell_Of_Lemon_-_Rachel_Joyce.pdf, A_Faraway_Smell_Of_Lemon_-_Rachel_Joyce.epub

Perfect’s] unputdownable factor . . . lies in its exploration of so many multilayered emotions. There is the unbreakable bond between mother and son, the fear of not belonging . . . and how love can offer redemption.” —London Evening Standard , on Perfect