Set at a remote beachfront cottage in the Hamptons during one summer of the Second World War, A World Away follows the fortunes of the Langer family, whose oldest son, Rennie, is missing in action in the Pacific Theater. Another battle rages at the same time, this one on the domestic front, as Anne and James Langer's marriage begins to unravel. In part to repay her husband for his affair with one of his students, Anne begins a clandestine romance with a soldier stationed at a nearby base. Yet all the passion and tenderness she finds with her lover are unable to erase the ache of having her family torn apart.

Thousands of miles away, Rennie is wounded in an effort to drive the Japanese from the island of Attu in the Aleutians, even as Dorothy, his young wife, gives birth alone in San Diego. When Rennie comes home, his spirit as wounded as his body, it's clear that James and Anne must repair their own broken lives if they are going to help their son heal and bring their family back together. A World Away is a rich, romantic story brimming with Stewart O'Nan's depth and generosity of spirit.