A Far Country

LoveReading Says

A Far Country  draws you into a world of drought and deprivation where 14 year old Isabel leaves her drought-stricken village to head for the city to live with her cousin, to earn some money and particularly to find her adored, older brother, Isaias.  Daniel Mason, author of The Piano Tuner, quickly draws you into her journey of discovery  with his powerful descriptions of the rural area, ‘the backlands’ where the people have to mix soil with their food to make it go further and the shanty town in the city, ‘the settlements’ where pollution and violence abound.   Isabel’s experience of both is told with an intensity and feeling that draws the reader into her suffering.   Isabel is so close to her brother that she can feel his presence when he is near and they communicate without speaking but when she gets to the settlements, her ‘sixth sense’ seems to desert her in the chaos of city life and her search for her brother becomes increasingly frantic. A powerful read.

LoveReading

About A Far Country

'Mason is a superb storyteller' - The TimesDiscover this richly evocative story of heroism and the bonds of family from the bestselling author of North Woods, Daniel Mason.When they spoke of it in town, they called it simply the city, as if it was the only city in the world . . .Raised in a remote village on the edge of a sugarcane plantation, Isabel was born with the gift and curse of 'seeing farther'. When drought and war grip their land, her beloved brother Isaias joins a great exodus to a teeming, labyrinthine city in the south.Soon the fourteen-year-old Isabel follows, forsaking the only home she's ever known, her sole consolation the thought of being with her brother again. But when she arrives, she discovers that Isaias has disappeared. Weeks and then months pass, until one day, armed only with her unshakeable hope, Isabel descends into the chaos of the city to find him . . .'One of the finest prose stylists in American fiction' - The New York Times

Read the full description

Find This Book In

Primary Genre

Modern and Contemporary Fiction