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A Far-flung Life
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A Far-flung Life

By: M L Stedman
Narrated by: Lewis Fitz-Gerald
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The mesmeric new novel from the author of the award-winning global bestseller, THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS

Western Australia, 1958. A truck rumbles along a lonely outback road. A moment’s inattention, and in a few muddled seconds the lives of the MacBride family are shattered.

Instead of leaving them to heal, fate comes back for them in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child.

Set in the expanse of a vast and flat landscape, where the weather is a capricious god and a million-acre sheep station is barely a dot on the map, A Far-flung Life explores the hearts of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive.

Capturing a family, a community, a generation, M L Stedman tells of the many ways humans can do each other wrong and how we move on when things can’t be put right. With shimmering prose and a delicious wit, the mysteries of being human are laid bare in this hopeful meditation on time and resilience and the lengths we go to to protect what we love.

Praise for The Light Between Oceans:

'An extraordinary book…Unforgettable' Guardian
'A moving tale . . . prepare to weep' New York Times
‘A moving tale. One of this year's must-reads’ Stylist Magazine

© M L Stedman 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural World Literature

Critic reviews

Heart-wrenching and beautifully set. A gorgeous feast of a novel about family, community, love and the lengths we will go to save them all.
A big, bold story of resilience and hope. I was completely swept away.
A world, a story, and a cast of characters I truly lost myself in. So much so I slowed down my reading of it, as I never wanted it to end. A Far-flung Life is a rare jewel of a novel and one I will never forget
Truly a masterpiece. I loved the very bones of it
Epic, intimate and aching. A novel that carries its secrets in hidden places, burying its wounds in the vast, empty landscape of Western Australia and in the broken hearts of its characters. I loved it.
Mesmerising and unforgettable, this sweeping novel aches with life’s impossible choices, thrums with love and pain, and imprints itself on your heart. I loved it.
One of those books that fill the soul. I couldn’t put it down. What an incredible story, as vast and starkly beautiful as the unforgiving terrain of its setting, and filled with light and love.'
Like the heartrending The Light Between Oceans, the MacBrides' story interrogates ideas of right and wrong in specific and complicated cases, and the experience of humans writ small against a vast landscape... Heartbreaking and painfully beautiful, A Far-flung Life will haunt and comfort long past its final page.
This highly anticipated new novel from the author of The Light Between Oceans promises to be just as epic
A gorgeous historical fiction saga about family and belonging, fate and time.
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