Synopses & Reviews
That Distant Land includes twenty-three stories from Wendell Berry's Port William membership arranged in their fictional chronology. The book shines forth as a single sustained work, not simply an anthology. It reveals Wendell Berry as a literary master capable of imaginative integrity over decades of writing with a multitude of characters followed over several generations. Combining "The Wild Birds" (1985), "Fidelity" (1992), and "Watch With Me" (1994), and including four never-before-collected stories and a map and genealogy of Port William, this book offers rest for the weary, hope for the beleaguered, and strength for the rest of us.
Synopsis
Drawn from three collections of stories and including new work, That Distant Land extends over nearly a century of Berry's Port William community. With 23 stories from the author's Port William membership, this book is arranged in its fictional chronology, and it shines forth as a single sustained work. That Distant Land truly reveals Wendell Berry — award-winning essayist, novelist, and poet — as a literary master.
Synopsis
That Distant Land includes twenty-three stories from Wendell Berry's Port William membership. Arranged in their fictional chronology, the book shines forth as a single sustained work, not simply an anthology. It reveals Wendell Berry as a literary master capable of managing an imaginative integrity over decades of writing with a multitude of characters followed over several generations. Combining The Wild Birds (1985), Fidelity (1992), and Watch With Me (1994), and including four never-before-collected stories and a map of Port William, this book offers rest for the weary, hope for the beleaguered, and strength for the rest of us.
Synopsis
Originally published in 2005, That Distant Land brings together twenty-three stories from the Port William Membership. Arranged in their fictional chronology, the book is not an anthology so much as it is a coherent temporal mapping of this landscape over time, revealing Berry's mastery of decades of the life lived alongside this clutch of interrelated characters bound by affection and followed over generations.
This volume combines the stories found in The Wild Birds (1985), Fidelity (1992), and Watch with Me (1994), together with a map and a charting of the complex and interlocking genealogies.