The Distance Between

Mattie Welsh has had a phone call from her sister: her parents have been in a serious automobile accident. She lives in Massachusetts, about a day's drive from the small Pennsylvania town where the family still resides. She leaves her husband and two sons to drive home. Alone, she falls prey to unexpected events and surprising fears. Along the way Mattie meets a number of mothers and daughters: a pregnant hitchhiker on the verge of hysteria, a bartender and her two daughters, and a self-possessed lost child. It is a journey in preparation for the confrontation that awaits her when she reaches her destination.With tenderness and humor, Eliza Osborne captures the complicated feelings that daughters and mothers have for one another, and the fears one faces upon the loss of a parent. It is a moving and often funny story that is as human and unpredictable as life itself.… (more)