The Far Field - by Edie Meidav (Paperback)

About the Book

In her debut novel, Edie Meidav tells the tale of Henry Fyre Gould, a self-described anti-missionary who travels to Ceylon from the spiritualist salons of 1930s New York City. Driven by an arrogant faith in his ideals, Henry settles in the village of Rajottama, intent on establishing a model society built on the lost truths of Buddhism. Instead of a utopian village, he slowly finds a tinderbox of caste struggle, political rebellion, espionage, and erotic intrigue. In the tradition of Michael Ondaatje, Barbara Kingsolver, and Joseph Conrad, Meidav grapples with the consequences of the West's fascination with the East and explores the nature of faith and love.

Book Synopsis

In her debut novel, Edie Meidav tells the tale of Henry Fyre Gould, a self-described anti-missionary who travels to Ceylon from the spiritualist salons of 1930s New York City. Driven by an arrogant faith in his ideals, Henry settles in the village of Rajottama, intent on establishing a model society built on the lost truths of Buddhism. Instead of a utopian village, he slowly finds a tinderbox of caste struggle, political rebellion, espionage, and erotic intrigue. In the tradition of Michael Ondaatje, Barbara Kingsolver, and Joseph Conrad, Meidav grapples with the consequences of the West's fascination with the East and explores the nature of faith and love.

Review Quotes

"[Meidav's] sprawling debut novel... has been justly compared to the fiction of Ondaatje and Kingsolver" Publishers Weekly, Starred

"A richly detailed and lyrical epic that reads like Joseph Conrad crossed with Michael Ondaatje." Harper's Bazaar

"It's the high-voltage prose and thematic intensity...that set the novel apart from the crowd."-- Voice Literary Supplement, "Writers on the Verge" The Village Voice

"Edie Meidav writes with Melvillean exuberance, and dramatically conjures an extraordinary and unfamiliar world... A remarkable first novel." --Claire Messud

"Luminous, perceptive...language that strikes us with its originality....An ambitious and distinguished first novel."-- Chitra Divakaruni The Los Angeles Times

"[A] rich, roiling first novel...Meidav has isolated and illuminated...the muddled intersection of beauty and elusive truth."-- Melanie Rehak Newsday

"Sophisticated... beautiful...ambitious, capacious and a good deal of fun."-- Emily Barton The San Francisco Chronicle

"We're in the midst of a golden age of ambitious first novels. And yet this one still stands out."-- Talk

"Meidav's huge panorama of Ceylon is not only stylish, but reveals a rare intensity of imagination."-- Paul West

"Brilliant, dazzling, spraying light far and wide. Meidav's first novel is a rare and precious treasure."-- Martha McPhee

"...illuminates the roots of the seemingly endless ethnic strife in modern-day Sri Lanka" Library Journal

Ambitious and imaginative first novel.
Town and Country