A Far-flung Life

 

A Far-flung Life by M. L. Stedman

Fiction

2026

Finished on December 27, 2025

Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding!)

Release Date: March 3, 2026

Publisher's Blurb:

From the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Light Between Oceans comes a breathtaking and epic novel set in the vast outback of Australia about tragedy, family secrets, and the enduring power of love.

When we do something that can't be undone or mended, how do we go on living? How do we find our North Star when there is no right answer? These are the questions at the center of M. L. Stedman's unforgettable and magisterial new novel A Far-flung Life, a sweeping and epic story of a family, a tragedy, and the aftermath that reverberates for decades.

Remote Western Australia, 1958: here, for generations, the MacBrides have lived on a vast sheep station, Meredith Downs. It is a million acres, an ocean of arid land. On an ordinary day, on a lonely road, under the unending blue sky, patriarch Phil MacBride serves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds the lives of the entire MacBride family are shattered. And then, tragedy revisits when a twist of consequences claims the life of one sibling and leads another to give up everything for the sake of an innocent child. Matt, the youngest MacBride, is blunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide. The secrets at the heart of this gutting and beautiful story force him to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness.

A Far-flung Life is a tale about family and belonging, fate and time. It is about people trying to do their best and each, for private reasons, seeking shelter from the storm of life. Can a fleeting moment unravel a whole life, mar it indelibly and irrevocably? Can compassion, resilience, and forgiveness allow us to come to terms with our human imperfections? These are the questions Stedman asks in her profoundly moving, uplifting, and luminous new novel about what the heart can endure for the sake of love.

It's been thirteen years since The Light Between Oceans was published. I received an ARC of that debut novel and gave it a perfect 5-star rating. To say that I loved it is an understatement. 

And thus, I was thrilled to receive an ARC of M. L. Stedman's new novel, and as soon as I wrapped up my Elizabeth Strout marathon, I dove right into A Far-flung Life. I couldn't have loved it more. What a remarkable story. It's one of loss, grief, love, and dark secrets. The characters are strongly defined and I ached for the MacBride family who had more than their share of heartaches. Stedman's setting is vivid, the heat and dust practically jumping off the pages.

It's hard country, out this way. Back in England, a farm might support two or three sheep per acre. Here, with the lack of rainfall, you need more like forty acres per sheep. There is heat. There is sun. But on winter nights the water in the tanks will freeze over. The searing light that coaxes life into being here will bleach it out of existence with the same indifferent shrug, leaving blanched trees, and rusted corrugated iron on the roofs of abandoned homesteads. The wind that brings the rain can bring floods and flatten shearing sheds. Everything that can do you good can also do you harm here--that's just the way of it.

This land has seen improbable things: the evolution of marsupials and monotremes; of flightless birds and animals that fly. It's seen continents split and islands arise. It's seen oceans turn to desert and desert turn to glaciers. And it's watched people drag their little lives across its surface, flat and unforgiving. 

and

In the homestead at Meredith Downs, silence is a canvas on which each sound trails like a color. The wind; a single fly; the clatter of a pan; the distant barking of a kelpie; the banging of a flywire door. There is no continuous murmur of traffic. No vague stream of voices. Each sound emerges for its solo, then fades into stillness, into a silence so complete it makes music of your heartbeat in your ears.

A Far-flung Life is a compulsively readable literary work, and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. It will likely become a book club favorite, and it will linger in my mind for years to come. I am so pleased to have finished out the year with a 5-star read, and look forward to re-reading this beautiful gem. It's a keeper.

Highly recommend!

I received a complimentary copy from Goodreads. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Exiles

 

Exiles by Jane Harper

Aaron Falk, #3

Mystery

2023 Flatiron Books

Finished on July 17, 2023

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother vanishing into the crowds.

A year on, Kim Gillespie’s absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather deep in the heart of South Australian wine country to welcome a new addition to the family.

Joining the celebrations is federal investigator Aaron Falk. But as he soaks up life in the lush valley, he begins to suspect this tight-knit group may be more fractured than it seems.

Between Falk’s closest friend, a missing mother, and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge.

An outstanding novel, a brilliant mystery and a heart-pounding read from the author of The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors.

I've read all of Jane Harper's books and I liked this one better than The Survivors, but not as much as The Dry or The Lost Man. Exiles is a very, very slow burn and I was tempted to give up (the plotting is tedious and lacks tension), but I eventually grew more interested, eager to see if my early assumptions were correct. If you're a patient reader, and have enjoyed Harper's earlier works, borrow this one from the library. It's not one I'll read twice.

The Survivors

 

The Survivors by Jane Harper

Mystery

2021 Macmillan Audio

Narrated by Stephen Shanahan

Finished on September 25, 2021

Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets...

Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.

Kieran's parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.

When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away...

Boring! I listened to this audiobook for almost two weeks, hoping it would improve the further along I got, but it continued to bore me to tears. I should have called it quits early on, but I enjoyed Jane Harper's previous mysteries and thought this one would be worth persevering. I read the print editions of The Dry and Force of Nature (click on titles for my reviews), so maybe I should have gone that route with this book. Stephen Shanahan's narration wasn't bad, but it did feel somewhat slow. I increased the playback speed, but even that didn't enhance the narrative. I will definitely get the print edition when I decide to read The Lost Man. 

I received a complimentary copy from Libro.fm. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Force of Nature

Force of Nature (Aaron Falk, #2) by Jane Harper
Mystery
2018 Flatiron
Finished on February 26, 2018
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

A major voice in contemporary fiction. Like Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series and Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, Jane Harper's deftly plotted mysteries double as sensitive inquiries into human nature, behavior, and psychology. Force of Nature bristles with wit; it crackles with suspense; it radiates atmosphere. An astonishing book from an astonishing writer." (A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window)

Publisher's Blurb:

Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along a muddy track. Only four come out on the other side.

The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and encourage teamwork and resilience. At least, that's what the corporate retreat website advertises.

Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker, Alice Russell. Because Alice knew secrets, about the company she worked for and the people she worked with.

The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.

I loved The Dry (the first installment in the Aaron Falk series) and was very happy to get a copy of this new release, which grabbed me from the opening pages. After a chapter or two, though, my enthusiasm began to wane and it wasn't until I had read half of the book before it really captured my interest; then I couldn't put it down. I liked the addition of Carmen to the mix of returning characters and was glad the author decided to stop reminding us of Aaron's burned hand. Set in Australia, I should have known this installment would also have its share of poisonous creatures. The Dry had spiders, so guess what's in this one? Snakes! A carpet python and tiger snake, if you really must know. Ugh. 

Overall, I enjoyed Force of Nature, but it didn't call out to me as much as The Dry. I had to suspend disbelief that such a dangerous retreat was not better supervised, given that it was run by a seemingly professional company, and the uneven writing wasn't nearly as taut as that in The Dry. But, I never did figure out whodunit, so it was still an enjoyable read. I'm anxious to see how Harper does with her next release, The Lost Man, which is due out in February. It's nice to get in on a series from the very beginning!

The Dry

The Dry (Aaron Falk, #1) by Jane Harper
Mystery
2017 Flatiron Books
Finished on January 11 2018
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Federal agent Aaron Falk hasn't been back to the place where he grew up in twenty years. Not since he and his father were run out of town. Even when Falk gets word that his childhood best friend, Luke, is dead and his entire family has been murdered, Falk still isn't planning on going back. But then he gets a note: Luke lied. You lied. Be at the funeral. And just like that, Falk is swept back into the secrets of the place and people he left so long ago.

When Falk returns for the funeral, Luke's parents implore him to look into his death -- though everyone else in town thinks the case is open-and-shut, they're sure something's not right. But as Falk himself knows, it's hard to get people to change their minds, and sometimes things are not as they appear. Amid the worst drought in a century, long-buried mysteries will resurface, as will the lies that accompany them. And Falk will discover anew what he's known all along: Sometimes you have to go back home in order to finally leave your past behind.

What a rip-roaring page-turner! I fell in love with Harper's masterful debut, eager to get back to it every evening, trying to unravel the threads of the two separate murders, chasing each red herring right up until the big reveal. The Dry is much more than just a mystery. The Australian setting is very much a character, with its unrelenting heat, dry open fields, snakes and spiders -- spiders such as the Huntsman and Red Back. (Nope. Sorry. I can't provide links because that would mean I would have to look at pictures of those spiders!) If this story is ever brought to the big screen, I can guarantee I will have my eyes covered at any mention of spiders. (OK, they were only briefly mentioned three times, but that was enough to make me a little uneasy.) 

On Grief:

No-one tells you this is how it’s going to be, do they? Oh yes, they’re all so sorry for your loss, all so keen to pop round and get the gossip when it happens, but no-one mentions having to go through your dead son’s drawers and return their library books, do they? No-one tells you how to cope with that.

Jane Harper has hit a home run with this debut thriller! The pacing is taut, the characters well-developed and the conclusion satisfying and not one bit convoluted or rushed. The flashbacks are seamlessly woven into the narrative without creating a jarring disruption to the flow of the story. Well done!