Reviewed by: Diane Ash, retired teacher and current church librarian at the Federated Church of Sandwich

Introduction

Title: Fly Away

Author: Lynn Austin

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: 2017

Format: Print book

Length: 234 pages

OVERVIEW

Lynn Austin’s newest novel takes place in 1987 and tells the story of two very different characters who meet by chance at a local cancer center.  Wilhelmina Brewster is a recently retired college music professor who has never married and has a serious, almost stern demeanor.  Mike Dolan is a WWII vet and pilot who is a widower with a son and grandchildren, and he has just been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.  Wilhelmina is playing the piano for the cancer center when they happen to meet.  She has never known the meaning of the word fun and is struggling to find a way to fill her empty days.  Mike Dolan lives life to the fullest and introduces Wilhelmina to a whole new world of picnics, kite flying, dogs, and grandchildren.  They are two very different people, one figuring out how to live, the other figuring out how to die.  When Wilhelmina finds out Mike is planning to end his life before his symptoms become debilitating, she knows it is her Christian duty to share her faith with him and lead him to Christ.

ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5)

4

Suggested Audience

Adults

Christian Impact

Some readers may find the subject matter to be depressing, but the interaction between these two very different characters is often humorous and touching.  The struggle of how to reach out to an unbeliever is addressed very well in the novel along with whether we have a right to take our own life.

Other notes

Fly Away was originally published by Beacon Hill Press in 1996 and has since gone out of print. The author states in her blog that she gave it an edit and added a few new pages but it is essentially the same as the original–with a MUCH better cover!

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