A Far Country: Daniel Mason

Image Credit: Book cover from Randomhouse and below Daniel Mason from NY Times

“Once, towards the end of winter, Isabel saw a little boy wandering on the dusty road above town. He was covered with long glass-like hair, and he chirped when she approached him. A week later, she fell sick.”

This is one of the passages that remained in my mind long after I finished reading “A Far Country” by Daniel Mason. Once in a while you come across a book, which you can’t put down because the writing is so breathtaking. This is one such. I was hooked as soon as I began reading Isabel’s story set in a village, “they would one day name Saint Michael in the Cane.” The village lives on agriculture particularly sugarcane and Isabel’s father is a cane cutter. She is closest to her brother Isaias who is gentle and protective. One day, Isaias goes away to the city and does not return and there begins Isabel’s quest for her brother.

A Far Country has two clear parts – the first set in the village and the second in the city. Mason does not name the country where the city is located and this makes it reach out more to the reader. The passages of poverty and the descriptions of the lives of the migrants could be set anywhere from South America to South East Asia. However, the names of some of the villages and people gave me an impression that it favored South America more.

Isabel’s courage and determination to find Isaias takes her to the city where she lives with her cousin Manuela. This is where Isaias was last heard of to be working. But this is also where the book begins to wind down a bit in terms of the story. Granted Isabel’s aim is to find her brother but I felt a bit dragged down reading her exploits in the city. “Mostly,” though, “she lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling, watching the room fill with light and later with darkness.” That becomes the essence of the second half, which becomes as aimless as Isabel. The story also becomes a bit too abstract and there were some things I could not fathom.

However, the writing never swerves from its delicious vein. Although Mason is very young his prose shows an elevated thinking. Mason writes in such haunting and mesmerizing prose that I had to read some of the passages again. A Far Country is a surreal and lush mix of magical realism and wonder juxtaposed with some very real people. Migrants find a voice through his book and their hardships that include fighting off street gangs are well portrayed. Manuela points out after an especially trying day, “I know it looks easy, with the electricity and the shops and the wells, but in many ways it’s harder than Saint Michael. At least in Saint Michael you know which way your trouble’s coming from… In Saint Michael most of the killing’s done by God.”

Ultimately, we come to know of Isaias though I don’t want to reveal anything more of that. I would love to quote one more of my favorite passages here but that would give away the ending so I have to restrain myself. Instead I will just end with my most favorite passage:

“Is there any other answer? Any other explanation than my awe of you: a slope of cursive in a church register, a crackling of twigs beside me, a silent companion who cast me into the world by your belief that I was anything other than what I really am… That you are the single person in the world who makes me more than what everyone else sees: that you created me, that in your mind lives the person I wish to be.”


Verdict: If these passages have not made up your mind then nothing will!

Rating: 4/5

Interesting words learnt: Charqui, Manioc, Bromeliad, Verdigris