A happily ever after is what we wish for our lives. Some see their goals achieved in getting married, settling down and having a bunch of kids and grandchildren around them. Kyle thought the same. He has a picture perfect huge loving family and a family business ,which is the headquarter for all their family gatherings. He plays baseball and has a girlfriend he loves deeply. Kyle is happy. Until his father tells him that his mother has an affair.
From that moment on, he quits everything without realising it. He ghosts his girlfriend who soon breaks up with him, he does not attend his baseball training, and starts to become depressed and anxious. His two sisters do not care and his friends do not understand why his parents potential breakup is affecting him so much, which leaves him only has his cousin Emily to turn to.
Kyle’s world shatters more when his grandparents decide to sell the family business and the family comes together to have their last summer on the property together. He has to face good and bad memories and understand that sometimes to let go can be a new beginning.
I think that many readers will understand what Kyle is going through as Zarr captures his emotions perfectly. When so many things are going on – change or being replaced – it is not easy to handle. Sometimes we see others the way we want or the way we made them up in our mind.
When Kyle stops playing baseball and instead starts coaching kids, he sees it as an opportunity to be distracted from all the negativity surrounding him. Little did he know that this will catch up with him.
Someone’s behaviour or decision can have a huge effect on others and we see this within the novel. It started with his sister Megan, who cut all ties with her family because of some disagreements. Kyle never truly understood her decision, but now he first turns to her and starts to have a different point of view on life. It is interesting to observe how his opinion and behaviour changes through the story.
Personally, I love the relationship Kyle has with his cousin Emily. It is wonderful to have a best friend within your family. They share the same interest and are always there for each other no matter how far they are apart.
Goodbye From Nowhere is a great summer afternoon read which will give you all the ups and downs about what being a family means and the fact the life constantly changes, if you want it to or not. You cannot stop it.
Goodbye From Nowhere is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Kyle Baker thought his family was happy. Happy enough, anyway. That’s why, when Kyle learns that his mother has been having an affair and his father has been living with the secret, his reality is altered. He quits baseball, ghosts his girlfriend, and generally checks out of life as he’s known it. With his older sisters out of the house and friends who don’t get it, the only person he can talk to is his cousin Emily—who is always there on the other end of his texts but still has her own life, hours away.
Kyle’s parents want him to keep the secret of his mother’s affair from the rest of the family until after what might be their last big summer reunion. As Kyle watches the effects of his parents’ choices ripple out over friends, family, and strangers, and he feels the walls of his relationships closing in, he has to decide what his obligations are to everyone he cares for—including himself.
National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr returns with an intimate, exquisitely crafted novel of anxiety and identity, of the ways that secrets keep us together and pull us apart, and of the courage it takes to see those we love for who they are.
