A Cup of Coffee

Between the New World and the Old Country, the twenty-first century and the nineteenth, there is loneliness that neither scholar nor churchman, sailor nor lover can ever quite escape. It is not always spelled out, but always underlies the quest. From the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the nineteenth century to Canada's North-West in the twenty-first, and here and there in between, we are treated to life stories taking us through adventures of an academic, a monk, a disenchanted clergyman and a sailing enthusiast. And then there is the semifictional autobiography of an old man who has taught the author the simple wisdom of fully enjoying a cup of coffee in the evening sun in one's garden. As the saying goes, God can write straight with crooked lines.