The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, THE KITE RUNNER is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons --- their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
Nuala O'Faolain burst upon the literary scene in 1998 with Are You Somebody?, a fiercely candid account of her youth and adulthood as an Irish woman that became a bestseller around the world and launched a new life for its author. Almost There begins at that moment when O'Faolain's life began to change and it both tells the story of a life in subtle, radical, and, above all, unforeseen renewal, and meditates on that story. It is on one level a tale of good fortune chasing out bad--of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman's experience of "the crucible of middle age"--a time of life that faces in two directions, forging the shape of the years to come, and clarifying and solidifying relationships with, friends and lovers (past and present), family and self. Almost There is a crystalline reflection of a singular character, utterly engaged in life.
It is 1913 when Alice meets Edward Cobb, the eligible son of a baronet. When Alice's father, a radical publisher, gets involved in a scandal, Edward breaks off their engagement, unaware that Alice is expecting his child. Desperate, she travels to Russia to serve as a governess for charming Baron Rettenberg, as the Russian Revolution and World War I rage on.
