Night Road

Kristin Hannah

JUDE Farraday has always put the lives of her beloved twins above her own, and now that Mia and Zach are growing up fast, the love and care they received in their early years has made them bright and happy teenagers.

But the arrival of Lexi Baill – a former foster girl with a dark past who has come to live with her elderly great aunt at a trailer park in their small, close-knit community – sets in motion a tragedy that will change them all forever.

First published in 2011, Night Road – a heart-wrenching story of family, love, grief and forgiveness – comes from the pen of lawyer turned author Kristin Hannah (pictured below) whose raft of more than twenty bestselling novels includes The Nightingale, The Great Alone, The Four Winds and, most recently, The Women, which is soon to be a major new film. With its searing exploration of some of our most emotive and important life issues, and how choices made on one hot summer night will reverberate painfully down through the years, this emotion-packed and multi-layered story is as powerful now as it was when it first won the hearts and minds of readers over a decade ago.

For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has lavished love on her beloved twins Mia and Zach, two smart, curious and loving kids, and when Lexi Baill moves into their neighbourhood, no one is more welcoming than Jude.

Lexi and Mia become close friends from the moment they start high school. They are different in so many ways... Lexi is an orphan and has only recently moved from Southern California to Washington State to live at the trailer park, while Mia is a golden girl blessed with a loving family and a beautiful home next to the sea.

Yet they both recognise something in each other which sets them apart from the crowd, and Mia comes to rely heavily on Lexi’s steadfast friendship. Much-loved and incredibly good-looking, Zach finds life far less complicated than his sister, but then he falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.

Jude thought she’d never have to worry about Zach, that he’d always sail through life easily achieving whatever he, and his family, wanted and expected... until his love affair with Lexi. The summer they graduate is a time they will always remember, and one they could never forget. It’s a summer of love, best friends, shared confidences and promises.

But it’s also a dangerous, explosive season of drinking, driving, parties, and kids who want to let their hair down, and on a hot summer’s night, one bad decision is made. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. Hearts are broken, loyalties challenged, hopes dashed, and in the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget… or the courage to forgive.

Hannah is undoubtedly a master storyteller... she writes with an elegiac elegance of places, landscapes, people and the many complex human emotions that can both enrich human lives and tear them apart. Personal dramas, relationships of every hue, and events that change lives in a blink of an eye lie at the heart of her unforgettable novels and Night Road – which explores how one reckless night destroys the lives of three teenagers and their families – illuminates the pain of loss and the redeeming power of love and forgiveness with searing insight.

Motherhood, identity and death all come under Hannah’s watchful eye, and the almost unbearable torments of grief, tragedy and guilt are laid bare as we witness the pitfalls of parenthood, the changes wrought by coming-of-age, and the inevitable repercussions of those all-important life choices. A masterclass in novel writing.
(Pan, paperback, £9.99)