In the mid-1960s, H. Arlo Nimmo conducted two years of anthropological field research in the Tawi-Tawi Islands of southern Philippines among the nomadic boat-dwelling Sama Dilaut. A Very Far Place was inspired by some of the people, places, and events he encountered during those years.
In this collection, we read about an American man searching for a father he never knew, a Filipino man seeking beauty and comfort denied him in Manila, the tragic ill-fated voyage of a young family, a broken American expat who finds solace in classical music, a Jewish woman and a German man who carry their mutual enmity to the other side of the world, a teenage couple divided by their families' feud, and a strange house on a river filled with dead animals. Although the stories are set in a faraway place and in a distant time, their themes still resonate in the here and now.