The Far Away Girl

Written by Sharon Maas

Narrated by Maggie Harris

She dreamed of finding a new life . . .

Georgetown, Guyana 1970. Seven-year-old Rita has always known she was responsible for the death of her beautiful mother Cassie. Her absent-minded father allows her to run wild in her ramshackle white wooden house by the sea, and surrounded by her army of stray pets, most of the time she can banish her mother's death to the back of her mind.

But then her new stepmother Chandra arrives and the house empties of love and laughter. Rita's pets are removed, her freedom curtailed, and before long, there's a new baby sister on the way. There's no room for Rita anymore.

Desperate to fill up the emptiness inside her, Rita begins to talk to the only photo she has of her dead mother, a poor farmer's daughter from the remote Guyanese rainforest. Determined to find the truth about her mother, Rita travels to find her mother's family in an unfamiliar land of shimmering creeks and towering vines. She finds comfort in the loving arms of her grandmother among the flowering shrubs and trees groaning with fruit. But when she discovers the terrible bruising secret that her father kept hidden from her, will she ever be able to feel happiness again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jan 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666123326

Sharon Maas

Sharon Maas is the author of more than ten novels, which span continents, cultures, and eras, from the sugar plantations of colonial British Guiana to the present-day brothels of Mumbai. Born into a prominent political family in Guyana, she was educated in England, Guyana, and Germany and worked as a journalist before beginning her career as a novelist.