Back to the Village and Other Stories. (Original writing)

In these four stories, characters struggle with notions of exile. For instance, in the lead story, the protagonist tries for nine years to work his way "home," even though geographically he is already there. He realizes that, since having left his village for a university education in the city, he has lost what he had left behind in the mountains. Culture becomes a barrier to his return. It is the struggle to break through barriers that characterizes these stories. The conclusion at first sounds grim: that one can never fully vault over the wall of culture that blocks one's path homeward after living in exile. Yet, once the characters acknowledge that impossibility, then they can begin to work with what lies on both sides of that wall.