"Away is a rich and elegiac novel celebrating the indomitable spirit of three generations of Irish immigrants as they struggle in the often harsh and uninviting wilderness that was Upper Canada. Forced to leave their home on the island of Rathlin off the northern coast of Ireland in the wake of the devastating potato famines of the 1840s, the O'Malley family attempted to build a new life for themselves in a country full of promise. From her home on the shores of Lake Ontario, Esther O'Malley Robertson, the last of the line, looks lingeringly back on her family's history, from the rough days of survival to flourishing times in Port Hope, Montreal, and Ottawa, a history that mirrors the country's growth and development as well. It's a rich and lyrical fiction that simmers with dark and sombre echoes."

I didn't like this nearly as well as The Underpainter, but it's still worth a good read.