The effects on many lives in the village of Thrush Green, in Southern England, when a carnival comes to town on May Day.

In the latest installment in Wendell Berry's long story about the citizens of Port William, Hannah Coulter sorts through her memories. Her first husband, Virgil, was declared "missing in action" shortly after the Battle of the Bulge; and after she married Nathan Coulter, about all he could tell Hannah about the Battle of Okinawa was "Ignorant boys, killing each other." The community was stunned and diminished by the war, with some of its sons lost...

"The New Year brings challenges and changes to the colorful Irish village of Ballybucklebo. The Christmas holidays have barely passed before a fire engulfs the humble thatched cottage housing Donal Donnally and his family. Although the family escapes the blaze more or less unsinged, Donal, his wife, their three small children, and their beloved dog find themselves with nothing left but the clothes on their back. Good thing Doctors O'Reilly and Laverty...

Twenty years earlier a white girl was found hanging from a bridge in a small town in New Mexico. The story arouses the curiosity of Will Sawyer, a new resident, and he decides to find out why. A study of curiosity, why some people have it and others don't.

At the age of 60, a Kentucky man decides to find out why half a century earlier his favorite uncle was shot, a crime for which the killer spent only two years in jail. The man was nine years old when the incident occurred and nobody would give him a reason.

Two years after his wife's death, Germain is encouraged to move on and find a new woman and home to accommodate his three growing children. He travels to visit a single woman who is eager to start a new family. Following his daughter's death, Père Maurice has provided constant support for his son-in-law Germain. But after two years, he pushes him to find a new wife. Germain is a young man with three children in need of a mother. Maurice sends him...

"Robert Glory has never quite felt as though he fit in the small town of Esau, Michigan, but finds solace in his role as the pastor of Esau Baptist and his spare, orderly routine. When Susan Shearer arrives at his church seeking the strength to stay true to her tormented and increasingly volatile husband, neither expect that their immediate connection will upend both of their lives. As their relationship deepens and Susan's domestic situation becomes...

"Leo is on a journey. Aged thirteen and banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon, grazing on berries and sleeping in copses. Behind him lies the past, and before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might - and soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their waggons, horses and vivid attire. Yet he knows he cannot linger, and must forge on to Penzance, towards...

Berry opens this latest installment of the Port William series with young Andy Catlett preparing to visit a place he'd been to many times before, though this would be an adventure he will take very seriously. Nine years old, Andy embarks on the trip by bus, alone for the first time. He decides it will be a rite of passage and his first step into manhood. Sometimes a handful at home, Andy was a good boy when visiting his Grandparents' houses, and he...

That Distant Land collects twenty-three stories, interlinked with each other and with the other published 'Port William' novels. The stories, arranged in their fictional chronology (from 1888 to almost the present day), become one sustained work, a new novel that spans the entire life and time involved. The range of this book is extraordinary: it offers rest for the weary, hope for the beleaguered, and strength for everyone else.