The Way Home Summary
Ann Turner

Everything you need to understand or teach The Way Home by Ann Turner.

  • The Way Home Summary & Study Guide

The Way Home Summary

The Way Home is a panorama of English life at the time of the Black Death.

It is a story of survival that centers on teen-aged Anne, who is outlawed and forced to leave her village to hide in a great marsh to the east of her home.

The novel is also a salute to the tenacity of the human spirit, as Anne overcomes repeated assaults that threaten to engulf and overwhelm her.

Anne is no lackluster heroine. She is strong, resilient, and high-spirited, and she is possessed of an inordinate sense of retribution. When taunted about her harelip, her response is to pay in kind.

Likewise, when she is mistreated by the baron, Lord Thomas, she curses him and conspires with her grandmother to punish him. Unfortunately, Lord Thomas dies, and it is Anne and her harelip that are blamed, rather than the mysterious illness that has...

(read more from the Short Guide)