Places far from Ellesmere (1990)

Internationally acclaimed novelist Aritha van Herk takes geography and fiction and creates of them a geografictione - fiction mapped on the lines of geography, geography following the course of fiction. Places From Far Ellesmere is an exploration of memory-maps with destinations that define the fiction of self, that call for the rediscovery of places and their rediscovery of her. Along the way, Places From Far Ellesmere takes new directions in the telling of origins: Tolstoy's enigmatic nineteenth century heroine Anna Karenina steps off the train into the village of the author's youth and into the twentieth century, follows her through her university studies, tracks her adult life under the skies of Alberta and escapes at last into the frozen imagination of Ellesmere Island. And there begins an argument that extends from Old World morality to modern womanhood. An argument that allows the author's unreading and rewriting of her own childhood, youth and adulthood in three places far from Ellesmere. Filled with derivations of dream geographies, with always fresh, always challenging perspectives, Places Far From Ellesmere is sure to extend the reputation of one of Canada's most talented writers.