Mason, Daniel. A Far Country.(Brief article)(Book review)

Mason, Daniel. A Far Country. Knopf. Mar. 2007. c.228p. ISBN 978-0-375-41466-5 [ISBN 978-0-375-41466-4]. $24. F

After the lush and intricate plotting of his debut, The Piano Tuner, Mason returns with a story that stylistically stands in stark contrast--a welcome sign that this novelist doesn't care to repeat himself. There's trouble in St. Michael in the Cane, a small town in an unnamed Third World country overwhelmed by drought and the machinations of rich men who pretend the land is theirs. Young Isabel is so deeply attached to her older brother, Isaias, that she can locate him anywhere in a huge stand of sugarcane--evidently, she's got a sixth sense, …