By Amy Bloom
247 pages; Random House

How is it that some people can lose everything but relentlessly keep moving forward? Away (Random House), by frequent O contributor Amy Bloom, tells of Lillian Leyb, an immigrant who lands at Ellis Island in 1924 with only her ambition and bittersweet memories. Though she's snagged a job as seamstress for a New York Yiddish theater company—and as mistress to both its elderly owner and his closeted son—Lillian strikes out toward the Yukon to find her daughter, who might have survived her family's massacre in Russia. A novel laced with heartache, but also a strong thread of hope.