500 Miles from You by Jenny Colgan

Sometimes, we can be really distant from our understanding of ourselves, from the people we need and love, and from where we ought to be.  Jenny Colgan writes about this in fresh new ways in 500 Miles from You, the third book in her Scottish Bookshop series, but which can be read on its own. 

Lissa Westcott, a nurse practitioner liaison for the National Health Service, visits patients at home in the busy city of London.  She knows many of her patients well and treats them skillfully, often with humor, to encourage them to live more healthy lives.  On her way between patients one day, she witnesses the violent death of a teenage boy she knows when a car plows deliberately into a group of his friends.  Despite the help of her friends and employer, nothing seems to help her move past this trauma, until she is forced to take a leave and work for three months in a remote town in Scotland.

She trades places with an unknown colleague, Cormac MacPherson, also a nurse practitioner liaison in little Kirrinfief on the shores of Loch Ness.  Cormac, a former Army medic, is suggested for this exchange to broaden his nursing skills.  Neither is happy about the move, but they do an exact change—in jobs and in living arrangements—with Lissa moving into Cormac’s Highland cottage and Cormac taking Lissa’s small room in a group housing residence for hospital employees. 

Both discover that they are completely out of their elements, puzzled by the impersonal nature of the city (Cormac) and the closely monitored life of a small village (Lissa).  The loud, pollution-filled mayhem of London disturbs Cormac, and the quiet, idyllic lanes of Scotland do not sit well with Lissa at all.

They are forced to correspond—first through case notes, then with e-mails, moving into texts, as they share information on their patients and on the confounding people and places they encounter.  Slowly, they each develop an appreciation for the places they are in and learn and heal in heartwarming ways.

The Proclaimers song “(I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles” is kind of the behind-the-scenes theme for this fun book, which is about a developing friendship and romance, but also a love letter to two disparate locations that are beautifully described.  Let Jenny Colgan’s new book take you away for an enjoyable armchair tour of Scotland and London and a surprising introduction to the life of a nurse. 

500 Miles from You is published on June 9.  Thanks to Harper Collins and Edelweiss for an advance copy.  Other books in this series are The Bookshop on the Corner and The Bookshop on the Shore.