Fly Away

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual assault.

Fly Away is a sequel to Kristin Hannah’s Firefly Lane. A coming-of-age story, Firefly Lane spans Tully’s life from youth to adulthood, culminating in the death of her best friend, Kate Ryan. Tully meets Kate when they are both fourteen. Tully and her mother have just moved to Firefly Lane in Snohomish, Washington, into a house owned by Tully’s grandmother. Tully’s mother, who calls herself Cloud, is a neglectful, emotionally absent parent with a substance use disorder. Tully has previously been raised by her grandmother, but Cloud has recently re-entered Tully’s life. In a new town with no support system, Tully is raped at party one night. Kate Mularkey, a nerdy eighth grader whose house is across the street from Tully’s, becomes an unexpected confidant. This cements their friendship and the young teens become inseparable. Indeed, in both Firefly Lane and Fly Away, Tully frequently references hearing their names spoken as one word by others: KateandTully. They spend their days biking around Firefly Lane and enjoying the music and fashion trends of the day, as many suburban teens of the late 1970s and early 1980s did.

The friendship hits a bump in the road when Cloud is jailed, and Tully must return to her grandmother’s house. She and Kate write countless letters to one another, however, and remain close. All the while, Tully holds tight to her dream of becoming a journalist—ideally in the television news industry. The girls attend the University of Washington together, where Tully demonstrates her drive and determination. Kate, content to fade quietly into Tully’s shadow, supports Tully completely, deciding she herself might pursue a writing job. After graduation, Tully lands a job in a television production company where she meets Johnny Ryan, a former war correspondent. Tully, ever supportive of her best friend, helps Kate secure a writing job at the company, too. Kate secretly develops feelings for Johnny, but remains quiet about them, certain Johnny is more likely to be drawn by Tully, with her outgoing charisma and charm. Eventually, though, it becomes clear that Johnny shares Kate’s feelings and the two marry.

As Kate and Johnny establish a family, Tully’s life heads in a different direction as her career as a journalist flourishes. The two friends remain close, but their worlds no longer intersect. This is until Tully has an opportunity to host a daytime talk show. She accepts the offer on the condition that the show be filmed in Seattle and produced by Johnny so that she can be close to the Ryan family. This, coupled with the adoration of Tully by Marah, Kate and Johnny’s daughter, causes Tully to become enmeshed in Kate’s life in a way that Kate finds threatening. The two fight, then drift apart. During the years they refuse to speak to one another, Kate is diagnosed with cancer and undergoes chemotherapy. She repeatedly tries reaching out to Tully, to no avail. It is only when it becomes certain that the end of Kate’s life is imminent that the friendship is rekindled.

In interviews, Hannah speaks of her personal connection to this novel, having grown up in the location and time in which Firefly Lane is set. She notes that spanning a period of 30 years was a particular challenge that she had not faced in previous novels (“Firefly Lane: Behind the Book”).