Just as she did in her debut novel The Silent Treatment, Abbie Greaves again demonstrates with Anywhere For You (published in the UK as The Ends of the Earth) that she has an incredible gift for delicately opening up interpersonal relationships and putting them on full display, for better or for worse.
The primary relationship we look at here is that of Mary and Jim. They were together for six years, but now it has been seven years since Jim disappeared. For those seven years, Mary has been at the train station night after night, watching commuters return to their families for the evening after a full day at their jobs. Every night Mary holds up a simple sign, and on it is a simple message: Come Home Jim. Seven years ago, Jim disappeared without a trace but Mary still wants him to know that she still wants him to come home to her.
Greaves walks us through the ups and the downs of Jim and Mary’s relationship with flashbacks as we gradually piece together what happened to this couple, where things went right, and where things went wrong. But Greaves’s precise hand manages to bring the reader right into the middle of the room while the couple is building their bond. We feel Mary’s growing sense of excitement and eventual trust, and we feel the tension in their misunderstandings and the relief in their resolutions.
There are many other relationships that Greaves allows us to observe and dissect as well as she is in reality telling a story much larger than that of Mary and Jim. Every person could pick this book up and connect in a slightly different way to a different combination of characters. Greaves tells a great big story of relationships with this small story. Successful, and unsuccessful, parent/child relationships (particularly those with adult “children”), new and old friends, neighbours, lovers, and co-workers, all different strengths and levels and types of bonds are what Greaves is really showing us. Mental health, holding on to secrets, building walls to shut others out, all such valuable concepts in the world we currently find ourselves living in and Anywhere For You makes us examine those in a powerful but gentle, non-confrontational way.
Anywhere For You is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of April 6th 2021.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A poignant and thrilling love story about one woman’s decade-long search to reconnect with the love of her life who disappeared without a trace—a stirring and heartfelt page-turner from the critically acclaimed author of The Silent Treatment.
The straphangers of Ealing Broadway station are familiar with Mary O’Connor, the woman who appears every day to watch the droves of busy commuters. But Mary never asks anything from anyone. She only holds out a sign bearing a heartrending message: Come Home Jim.
While others pass her by without a thought, Alice, a junior reporter at the Ealing Bugle, asks Mary to tell her story. Many years ago, Mary met the charming and romantic Jim Whitnell. She was certain she’d found her other half, until one day he vanished without any explanation. But Mary believes that Jim isn’t a cad, that he truly loved her and will return—especially because she’s recently received grainy phone calls from him saying he misses her.
Touched but also suspicious, Alice quietly begins her own investigation into Jim’s disappearance, unraveling a decade-long story filled with desire, heartbreak, and hope. With Greaves’s signature warmth and charm, Anywhere for You is a romantic and immensely moving novel about the enduring power of love and finding happiness in unexpected places.
