Mysterious Distance is a story of cycles: the cycle of romance, of death, of dreams ... & of corn. Updating an old Aztec agricultural mythology to suit the meaning of our times-a time of mistrust and rebellion in the ways we consume, as well as the ways we relate to one another-Beres holds up a mirror and invites us to examine our own cycles. In the end, it is a tale we can all relate to: that of love and love lost, that of life and death, and that of the mysterious distance between the romance of who we are and the life we want to live, and the life that presents itself before us. It is a reminder that as far as we run from our patterns, we cannot run from ourselves, and, more importantly, that there is no reason to: the ritual of life is a rite of celebration, even when times seem darkest. Mysterious Distance is Beres"s fifth book and first novel. Inspired by the mythological undertones of John Steinbeck"s East of Eden, the author set out to capture the state of agriculture in America today, one dominated by factory farming, useless subsidies, and patented seeds with large lawsuits against independent farmers. Yet he never intended to write a book that merely repeated statistics. Instead, Beres chose to tell the human side of the story, and not revolve the entire tale around farm life. Indeed, most of the book takes place in and around Manhattan in 2006, and spends most of its time discussing the relationships between people.