Rajinderpal S. Pal Explores Family Secrets, Painful Compromises, and the Promises We Break in However Far Away

Already a critically acclaimed stage performer and poet, Rajinderpal S. Pal has distilled a secret love affair, cultural complexities, and family drama into his new novel. It's a stunning debut by the author, and one that is sure to reach a broad literary audience.

In However Far Away (House of Anansi Press), we find Devinder Gill on the morning of his nephew's wedding, but this joyous occasion is tinted with the knowledge that he won't just be at the ceremony with his wife and happy family. In fact, an Irish Canadian mistress from the past will be attending, and this simple act and the fallout from it will threaten the illusion of control that Devinder feels he had over his life. 

The novel is poignant and deep, and gets to the heart of what it means to maintain relationships and a family over time, and what risks we take and promises we keep or break to find a way through the hardest parts of life.

We have a fantastic Long Story Novelist Interview with Rajinderpal S. Pal to share with our readers today, where the author talks about the origins of the story and how the novel evolved and took shape over many years!

Open Book:

Do you remember how you first started this novel or the very first bit of writing you did for it? 

Rajinderpal S. Pal:

2005 was my first full year of living in Vancouver following a work-related relocation from Calgary. The winter had been hard—dark and gloomy, relentless rain—but spring lifted my mood. I was sitting on a bench near Kitsilano Beach one Saturday morning in early June when I saw a determined young man—headphones, iPod, frayed running shorts—run past me. I immediately started to imagine what this young man might be running from or running toward. That afternoon, back in my basement apartment, I sat down to write for the first time since my move, and within an hour I had seven pages of prose; I was primarily a poet at the time. Over the next few years, I moved two more times, first to New Jersey and then to Toronto. I hardly wrote a word for over a decade, but this character and his possible story stayed with me. Nineteen years later the trace of those seven pages of prose is where the present-tense narrative arc of However Far Away begins.

OB:

How did you choose the setting of your novel? What connection, if any, did you have to the setting when you began writing?

RSP:

In a way, the location chose itself. I had the notion that the novel—or novella as I imagined at the time—would explore themes of settling. I wanted to investigate themes of migration to new countries and adjustment to unfamiliar cultures, the choices we make as to what we accept and what we compromise, paying off debts, getting even, and the settler vs. indigenous experience. The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that Vancouver should remain the primary location, with its fault lines and shifting ground, its constant settling.

OB:

Did the ending of your novel change at all through your drafts? If so, how?

RSP:

For a long time, I had a general sense of how I wanted the novel to end—from the POV of the lead male protagonist, in the same location as the opening—but had no idea of how the narrative would get me there. Even with ninety percent of the first draft written I was clueless. And then a friend suggested that I take a day or two to write and finesse a possible final paragraph for the novel. Once I had a polished last paragraph, it became a kind of target, or destination, not only for the story arc but an intention of mood and quality. Everything I wrote, edited and re-edited, from then on had that endpoint in mind.

OB:

Did you celebrate finishing your final draft or any other milestones during the writing process? If so, how?

RSP:

I was in Vancouver for six weeks in 2022 conducting the final bits of research for the book and incorporating information acquired during a recent trip to Belfast. Toward the end of that stay, I felt that I had a draft that was ready for my agent to share with potential publishers. The week I e-mailed her the draft was also the week that the Michelin Guide announced their list of one-star picks for Vancouver. I decided it was a sign for me to try, for the first time, one of these exalted restaurants, and one rainy evening I walked to the selected fine-food establishment nearest to where I was staying. To my surprise I was able to snag a seat at the bar and experienced a fabulous meal with pleasing conversation about creativity and art with the patrons sitting beside me. The restaurant just happened to be called Published on Main.

OB:

Did you include an epigraph in your book? If so, how did you choose it and how does it relate to the narrative?

RSP:

There are two epigraphs in However Far Away. The first is by Toronto musician Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station) from a song called “To Talk About.” For me that song speaks to our fear of addressing difficult subjects and our tendency to fall back on conversations that are easy or emotionally uncomplicated. The second epigraph is from the brilliant novel Milkman by Anna Burns. Though we like to think that we live to love and be loved, that our purpose here is to be happy, our reasons and motivations for making impactful life decisions do not always line up with our wishes. Both epigraphs foreshadow and reflect the major themes of However Far Away.

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Rajinderpal S. Pal is a critically acclaimed writer and stage performer. He is the author of two collections of award-winning poetry, pappaji wrote poetry in a language i cannot read and pulse. Born in India and raised in Great Britain, Pal has lived in many cities across North America and now resides in Toronto. However Far Away is his first novel.