"Grief is a far country that we visit for a while when our loved ones go home. Sometimes our visit is a long one, and we have a hard time finding our way back. When we do, we carry the memories, not as a burden, but as a treasure." When fourteen-year-old Anne Marie Gibson loses her mother and her father remarries soon after, Annie finds that the journey back from that far country-a journey complicated by her resentment of her father's remarriage and of her stepmother's presence-is hard indeed. She also must adapt to the issues and demands of her first year in high school, which provide a counterpoint to her conflicts at home.

Set in the 1960's in western Oklahoma, A FAR JOURNEY is a mesmerizing recital of the timeless issues of learning to go on in the face of grief, acceptance, forgiveness, friendship, and love.