Short-listed for the 2005 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
Declan O’Malley came to the coast of British Columbia because it was as far away from Ireland as he could possibly go. Haunted by memories of his family’s death at the hands of the Black and Tans, Declan is unable to escape his grief. He immerses himself in a new life, seeking to produce a more perfect translation of Homer’s Odyssey while at the same time becoming closer to the family on whose property he is living. But Declan cannot free himself from his past, and when Ireland beckons, he is drawn to his own history and to the opportunity for a happier future.
Theresa Kishkan has lived on both coasts of Canada as well as in Greece, England, and Ireland. She currently lives on B.C.'s Sechelt Peninsula with her husband and three children. They run a small private press, High Ground Press. Kishkan is the author of a novel (Sisters of Grass), a novella (Irishbream), and several books of poetry.
Kishkan's patient, nuanced delineation of a life of contemplation, bent on regeneration, resigned to half-happiness, celebrates the stubborn, baiting power of the honourable individual set adrift in dishonest time.
Georgia Straight
With her new novel, A Man In A Distant Field, Theresa Kishkan demonstrates that the story of the archetypal survivor has lost none of it's epic emotional power...There isn't a moment in this novel when you can't see something intensely
Vancouver Sun