The Long Walk Back

About the Book

The novel begins with Miriam, a intelligent, optimistic child starting the long walk to the school house where she dreams that a whole new world of opportunities will open out for her. She excels academically, but insecure and uncertain of her role in a rural, uneducated family, she finds herself bullied by the older children, including her siblings.

A move to the city when she is fourteen shows her thrust into situations for which she has no preparation, and results in a teenage pregnancy in which she is definitely the victim, although she is blamed and it nearly tears the family apart. She continues to allow circumstances to control her life through one relatively successful marriage which ends in tragedy, and one miserable one. Finally, against the advice of her family, she takes control of her life, and pays the necessary price to do so.

About the Author

Elizabeth Savoie was born and raised in New Brunswick, Canada, as is familiar with the rural and urban setting of her novel. As a teenager and young adult she wrote short stories and dreamed of becoming an author. Life got in the way - marriage, children, work. She did supply-teaching, office work, and is presently a licensed lay minister.