For some reason this book has disappeared from my shelf before I could get it completed. I was really interested in the book.

This was pretty good. Probably of most interest to older readers give the timeline, but could be enjoyed by anyone.

I really appreciate the review copy!!

I wanted to like this novel more than I actually did. Some parts of it utterly exhilarated, drove me on to the next page. Other parts dragged. Ultimately and sadly, many of the endings in the novel unravelled the tight twists of its mysteries into mere frayed ends.

But, that said, Harun’s prose and character building was phenomenal; I could almost feel their breath in the air as I read. For readers who enjoy the gossip and politics of living in a small town, this is the novel for you. The tensions were real and tight and very appealing.

The premise of the story, while it falls flat, is an intriguing one. The novel centers on a strange community building exercise instigated by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, exhorting citizens to walk fifty miles within twenty hours. This brainchild, the Kennedy March, is the event which brings together an odd collection of a Pacific Northwest’s townsfolk: boy scouts, middle and high school students, a widow, the town’s telephone operator, and a mish-mash of others. It is an informal, poorly organized march, mapped out for the participants and then nothing — they are left to navigate the route on their own.

What occurs during those twenty hours is what draws them together, asks them confront and perhaps reconcile the restlessness of their personal trajectories, forces them to look upon one another with suspicion. The rag-tag group encounter secrets along their march and in doing so must sort out who they think they really are.

Embedded in their adventure are the misadventures of others in their town. It is here that I was disappointed. There are mysterious lures… there is the promise — actually several — of scandal and thrill, but the story never fully resolves those mysteries, abandons them. I read on hoping that the novel would return to those threads, but it didn’t. At least not to my satisfaction.

Nonetheless, an intriguing and character-centric read, one that will please fans of literary fiction.

It’s 1963, and President John F Kennedy implores the citizenship to embark on a 50 mile hike as a way to boost morale and demonstrate American’s fitness. On The Way To The End Of The World fictionalizes that request and follows a small and diverse group of small town residents as they embark on their hike. The author explores the lives of the walkers during their 24 hour journey, weaving in a mystery as well as the secrets many of the walkers hold. It’s a nostalgic, light and somewhat poetic read that tries to capture the essence of Anytown, USA during that era and will appeal to broad range of readers. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.