The Land Across

The Land Across

Gene Wolfe

Language: English

Pages: 288

ISBN: 0765335964

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


An American writer of travel guides in need of a new location chooses to travel to a small and obscure Eastern European country. The moment Grafton crosses the border he is in trouble, much more than he could have imagined. His passport is taken by guards, and then he is detained for not having it. He is released into the custody of a family, but is again detained. It becomes evident that there are supernatural agencies at work, but they are not in some ways as threatening as the brute forces of bureaucracy and corruption in that country. Is our hero in fact a spy for the CIA? Or is he an innocent citizen caught in a Kafkaesque trap?

In The Land Across, Gene Wolfe keeps us guessing until the very end, and after.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

exactly.” “You are hungry, perhaps?” “I’m not starved, but I could eat. I’d like some water, too.” “You shall have better. Soon I return.” Off he went, and I sat there feeling the rock of the boat and the tilt of the deck and wondering. I knew I had been handed something when he said the Light of Stability, only I did not know what it was or how to use it. I thought that if I could find out what it meant I would figure out how to use it. That is the way I was thinking then, when my head hurt

when we stopped. “You can’t hardly speak the language. How come you could read that shop window?” “I can’t,” Rosalee told me. “It’s the picture, the hand with the white rabbit. It was on their stationery.” I told Naala what she had said. “We go there. This is better than the priest, I hope. Ask her the name.” I did and Rosalee said, “Left-Hand Magic Supplies.” “Did Russ tell you? I thought you couldn’t read their letters.” “No! I could! I did! Only I couldn’t remember the name of the

was brought here at gunpoint, like I said, and I’ve never been back to Puraustays. Most of the time I was in jail, and for quite a while I was taping those broadcasts for the Legion, too. I hope I made all that clear.” He nodded, and it seemed like he felt worse than I did about it. “So the cops have shot Kleon, and Martya’s a widow—or I hope she is.” I took a deep breath. “That girl who brought you the hand? That was Martya. Or we think it was. Somebody wants to kill you, and that somebody’s

but I did not. I laid it gently on the tablecloth, right in front of his eggs. 18 GETTING AHEAD When the waiter came around with more coffee, Papa Zenon covered the hand with a napkin. That sticks in my memory, and I always want to laugh. Sometimes I do. It is the kind of nervous laugh that comes when I have a really close call but do not get hurt. When the waiter had gone, Papa uncovered it and bent over the hand looking at the tattoos. “This is no curse.” He pointed to the writing in

some. It was mostly private stuff so I am not going to give it here. Then we went to sleep. When I woke up I was in my room and Naala was gone. So were all the clothes I had worn the night before. My gun and my badge case were lying on top of a stack of new clothes. I thought of the hand and was worried sick. It was not in the box or anyplace else I looked in. When I dropped my badge case I saw there was an identity card in there now. It had my picture on it, and it probably said I was JAKA. I

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