“Annie Freed reminisces on how she'd joined a clan of young adults in ‘sweet, open-ended’ 1970s Ferris, California, a ‘sleepy town’ that ‘still thought the year was somewhere around 1952.’ Frank's prose style remains deft, and she creates characters as vibrant as the laid-back town that transforms into a suffocating suburb like a ‘spreading amoeba.’ A compact, bittersweet tale capturing the essence of carefree youth and lost innocence.”   —Publishers Weekly

“THE GREAT FAR AWAY renders the expansive seventies and the conformist eighties in a single elegant gesture.  Joan Frank portrays the Northern Californian community of Ferris with such sociological acuity and painterly detail that we feel we must have been there ourselves, making our own defining decisions. This ambitious ensemble novella recalls Carson McCullers in its evocation of the power and danger of communal knowledge.” —Trudy Lewis,

author of THE BONES OF GARBO and PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCES

“This is a bittersweet love story and a story of ‘coming-of-age,’ although somewhat reluctantly for some members of this little community.  It was heartwarming to follow them from their initial arrivals in Ferris through the buildups and breakdowns of their families.  Joan Frank writes wonderful prose and speaks magic with her words.  A memorable book which I recommend strongly.”

       —Pam White, Skyland Books, West Jefferson, NC

Joan Frank is the author of four books of fiction. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, Pushcart Prize nominee, winner of the Richard Sullivan Prize, Dana Award, Michigan Literary Fiction Award, Iowa Writing Award and Emrys Fiction Award, and recipient of grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation. She has taught Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, and lives in Northern California. Visit Joan at www.joanfrank.org.