A Far Country
Written by Daniel Mason
Narrated by Anne Twomey
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Raised in a remote village on the edge of a sugarcane plantation, fourteen-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.
Told 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.
Daniel Mason
Daniel Mason is a physician and author of the novels The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier. His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages, and adapted for opera and theatre. A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, he is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University, where he teaches courses in the humanities and medicine. He lives in the Bay Area with his family.
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Reviews for A Far Country
98 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found this to be a reasonable piece of entertainment. Mr. Shute chooses to emphasis the idea that for those living in the straitened post-WWII Great Britain, the commonwealth countries could provide a second chance to enjoy the possibilities of life. There is also an exploration of the difficulties imposed on non-British qualified immigrants to the English speaking world.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Far Country - Nevil Shute ****Nevil Shute has won a place as one of my favourite authors since I picked up On the Beach a few years ago. His books don’t seem to be much publicised these days which is a shame, especially when you consider the success he had during the 60’s and 50’s. I know that they can appear a little dated but that just adds to the beauty of his world. Here you won’t find and sort of sex or gratuitous violence, even though he is unafraid to confront serious issues that were relevant at that period. It is almost like stepping back in time to world that probably never existed, but we all think did. The Far Country was written way back in 1952 and set in 1950, we follow a young girl called Jennifer Morton who lives in a very harsh London, a city still reeling from the aftermath of a very hard war. At the beginning she is summoned to her grandmother’s home and is shocked to see the poverty she has been allowed to live in. With a pension that has dried up and seemingly lost in the system, she has been allowed to practically starve to death. Just before her inevitable demise the grandmother receives some money from relatives in Australia, and it is her dying wish that Jennifer should visit the ‘Far Country’ before she settles down in Britain. After discussions with her parents Jennifer decides to visit Australia and stay with her extended family whilst experiencing their way of life, and sets off for the outback. Whilst there she meets a foreign doctor and falls in love, but will she be able to adapt to this new life or will she return home to her place of birth?From the description this novel sounds like something out of a Mills and Boon paperback, but it really is so much more than that. Shute himself immigrated to Australia and left behind a fledgling NHS & a socialist government, he really doesn’t hold anything back and the contempt he feels for his old country drips from every page. The food rationing/shortages and weather paint a very bleak picture of what life was like for the ordinary man and he contrasts this with Australia being the land of plenty, a new life and a new beginning. Several smaller themes are entangled throughout such as belonging, class & loyalty.Some people may view The Far Country as a fairly vicious attack on everything Shute turned his back on in post war Britain, others may see it as a fairly simple love story. Personally I see it as an adventure in a new land where normal people are forced into less ordinary circumstances (a theme very evident in most of his books) and have to deal with not just their emotions but the environment around them.Although not my favourite Shute book it is still recommendable, although I think ‘On the Beach’ & ‘Trustee from the Toolroom’ are a better place to discover the author.