Baggage [Mass Market Paperback]

Emily Barr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2002

At eighteen, your closest friend commits suicide. At twenty-nine, you're backpacking in the Australian outback when you see her. She has a husband. She has a ten-year-old son. She has a baby on the way. She claims to be someone else. But you'd recognise her anywhere. Back in England you tell your journalist boyfriend. While he never knew her, he always knew of her - her name is Daisy Fraser and she was awaiting trial over the deaths of four people when she jumped off the Severn Bridge. He thinks: This could be the scoop of the century. He says: Happy Christmas - I'm taking you to Australia to find Daisy.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...succeeds in building...complex characters with conflicting interests and releasing information at just the right time. Even the epilogue holds surprises. -- USA Today, January 14, 2003

...the plot and the Australian outback setting keep the story interesting. Recommended... -- Library Journal, January 2003

About the Author

Emily Barr has written columns and travel pieces for the Observer and the Guardian for several years, and her previous novels Backpack and Baggage were critically acclaimed. She lives in the south of France with her husband and two sons. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Plume (December 31, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452283825
• ISBN-13: 978-0452283824
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,018,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't be disappointed if you pick up Baggage, February 10, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baggage (Mass Market Paperback)

Emily Barr has delivered another great novel in BAGGAGE. Like BACKPACK, her debut book, BAGGAGE is a combination mystery, love story and travel narrative. Using her experience as a travel writer with London's Observer and The Guardian, Barr whisks us away this time to the Australian Outback, with all its ubiquitous dust, oppressive heat and beer drinking Aussies.

Lina Pritchett has been on the run for ten years. Why? Well, we're not entirely sure at first but the story unfolds at a teasing pace, as little by little Lina's past comes to light. Settled in Craggy Rock, Lina has a comfortable marriage to Tony, an opal miner, as well as a delightful ten-year-old boy named Red. She teaches elementary school, frequents the neighborhood pub, indulges in neighborhood gossip and feels her roots spreading with ease, for the first time in a decade.

On another continent, Larry is a second-rate reporter in search of a blockbuster story that will help his career soar --- he will stop at nothing to get it. This means that he'll search through co-workers' desks when they're not looking, cheat on his unsuspecting girlfriend, manipulate the few friends he has --- and lie, lie, lie. He's a weasel with a mission.

The stories of Lina and Larry intersect in the person of Sophie, a natural beauty with a sweet naiveté. Traveling in Australia, her first trip away from England, Sophie attends a local wedding on a whim, where she discovers her best friend since third grade, Daisy Fraser. The trouble is that Daisy died ten years ago when she threw herself from a bridge to escape going to jail for a horrible, mysterious crime. Despite Lina's protestations and fake Australian accent, Sophie knows in her heart that she has found her long-lost, believed-to-be-dead friend. I am not ruining anything by telling you that Sophie's instincts are correct --- Lina Pritchett is indeed Daisy Fraser (this is revealed early on in the narrative). Sophie returns to London and tells her boyfriend, the crooked reporter, that she has found Daisy. Larry's plans to bring Daisy to justice begin and his dreams of a Pulitzer Prize seem within reach.

Needless to say, Lina Pritchett is traveling with more than her share of baggage and the load is getting heavier by the day. Pregnant and fearing that she will soon be ratted out by Sophie, Lina hits the road again, relocating her entire family and her nagging secrets. Barr impresses upon the reader every pound of Lina's growing pregnancy, every fear of discovery, every bead of sweat as she drives the long, hot roads of Australia searching for sanctuary and peace. You won't be disappointed if you pick up BAGGAGE.

--- Reviewed by Roberta O'Hara

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing book, April 1, 2003

By 

Busy Mom (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Baggage (Mass Market Paperback)

When I picked this book up, I thought it would be a typical chick flick ~~ it wasn't. Much to my surprise, it's somewhat of a mystery book ~~ and I enjoyed it immensely! At least, I have a better idea of what Australia is like!

Lina is preoccupied with hiding her pregnancy from the villagers of Craggy Rock, a desert town in Australia. She hasn't even told her 10-year-old son yet ~~ and the next day, her whole life changes upon a chance meeting with an Englisher who was insistent that Lina is her best friend, who had disappeared ten years previous. Lina insists that she's Lina, wife to Tony and mother to Red ~~ is she hiding something more than she is willing to let on? And Barr writes convincingly of a woman with a past ~~ how the past catches up with her and the sleazy journalists who swarmed over the sleepy desert town just to get the hottest story of the year.

It is a quick read ~~ perfect beach read ~~ and it's not one of the fluffy chick lit either. Don't let the cover fool you. If there were sex scenes in that book, there weren't that many and it wasn't graphic either. The characters were more preoccupied with alcohol than sex ~~ which is an unusual change of pace for me! But it was an enjoyable read ~~ Barr is one author I would like to read more on...

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great suspense from a new author!, February 13, 2003

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Baggage (Mass Market Paperback)

Baggage is a suspenseful and complex novel about a woman who thought she had escaped her painful past. Lina Pritchett has finally found the normalcy she's always craved. She's an elementary school teacher in a small Australian town, has a loving husband and an adorable adopted ten-year-old son. However, her ordered world shatters when she reunites with an old friend -- a friend who had left her for dead years ago. What is Lina hiding? And will she be able to escape her past again? To make matters worse, she is pregnant. There are various twists in the novel.

Emily Barr is a great new voice in fiction. Baggage is readable from cover to cover. I devoured it in two days. I look forward to reading Backpack, her first novel.