A Far Country

A Novel

By: Daniel Mason

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the best-selling author of The Piano Tuner, a stunning new novel about a young girl’s journey through a vast, unnamed country in search of her brother. 

Raised in a remote village on the edge of a sugarcane plantation, 14-year-old Isabel was born with the gift and curse of “seeing farther.” When drought and war grip the backlands, her brother Isaias joins a great exodus to a teeming city in the south. Soon Isabel must follow, 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 unshakable hope, she descends into the chaos of the city to find him.old with astonishing empathy, and strikingly visual, the story of Isabel’s quest - her dignity and determination, her deeply spiritual world - is a universal tale about the bonds of family and a sister’s love for her brother, about journeys and longing, survival and true heroism. 

©2007 Daniel Phillipe Mason (P)2007 Books on Tape

Critic Reviews

"[An] intriguing parable...fascinating...disturbingly enigmatic....Mason keeps the reader off guard and guessing, and...there's a terrific payoff, a riveting climactic scene." (Kirkus)

“Powerful...Haunting...The story revolves around Isabel, a charmingly melancholy girl who lives with her extended family in Saint Michael...[She] has a brother, Isaias, who is seven years her senior...Isabel adores him, and she has an uncanny ability of always finding him, no matter where he is. Then, drought and civil unrest descend upon them...Isaias sneaks away one night to make his fortune as a street entertainer in the big city. Soon after, when food is gone, Isabel follows...When Isabel arrives, Isaias is nowhere to be found. Isabel waits for him, day after day. Her despair grows palpable...The ‘far country’ [of the title] is redolent of what C. S. Lewis in The Pilgrim’s Promise called Sehnsucht, the ‘inconsolable longing’ in the human heart for ‘we know not what’...I found that Isabel’s story was my own, and her quest carried me through to the very end. Indeed, Mason has erased time and location details in the book so that it can be read as everyperson’s story, with the timeless beauty of a slow, winding parable. He’s a deft weaver of words...I’m already looking forward to his third novel.” (Elissa Elliott, Christianity Today)

"This highly anticipated second novel...doesn't disappoint. Once again Mason employs his unusual, remarkable prose style to tell of a journey of discovery....[he] invests his story with all the power of a fable." (Booklist) 

not so good

I read the piano tuner, Daniel Masons first novel a few years back when it first came out and thought it was alright. He has a the talent for discriptive writing and I liked being in the burmese jungle, though I thought story was a little weak and didn't really care for the main character.

Well this book is worse. The premise sounded interesting, so I listened. When it started the main character had a power or ability and this is what drew me in, in the first place. Then early in the book the power went away and we were left with a character that just wandered around and again I didn't care what happened.

The author still has a knack for discriptive writing but when what you are discribing is drout, poverty and slums it just didn't do it for me.

The upside is the reader was alright, I quess.

Expected ...something

The writer doesn't do much with the characters except to tell us what happens, aimlessly going nowhere. No hope, no reason for the reader to be empathic.

The narrator is top notch. I'll search for other books she narrates.

I have enjoyed other novels by Daniel Mason.

Slow moving. It was difficult to engage my interest in the character or the story. Narration did not help.