A man stands up and leaves. For a moment, Thomas hesitates, then he leaves the house, his wife, and his children. With a surprised smile, he simply continues on and disappears. Astrid, his wife, first wonders where he has gone, then when he will return, and finally, whether he is still alive. Everyone knows him: the desire to escape, the thought of shedding the old life, the possibility of being someone else, perhaps even oneself. Peter Stamm is a master at telling those dreams that both entice and frighten, that represent both the most beautiful possibility and the most terrible loss. "Far Across the Land" is a novel that poses the most ordinary of all questions: that of one's own life.