"Far Away" up-close

I believe that literary work doesn’t really belong to me any more once it’s out in the public. Every reader then makes of it whatever they want in their own imagination. So my intention was to not talk about “Far Away” at all, but there are two things that are mentioned in the story that I would like you to see/hear. The sculpture that Moira mentions to Jack is the famous sculpture of  Gregory of Nin in the coastal city of Split, Croatia. The sculpture is made by an artist Ivan Mestrovic and is positioned in front of Josip Juraj Strossmeyer Parc, a few feet away from the Golden Gate to the old city. Gregory of Nin was a Croatian bishop who lived at the beginning of the 10^th century. He was the first scholar to translate religious scripts and services to the local language, as opposed to Latin, which most of the population in Croatia did not understand. The big toe of the copper sculpture is shiny because people stroke it for good luck. I did that too once! :) The concert in the story that was cancelled was supposed to be held in the Tonhalle, Zürich, Switzerland. One of the pieces was “Benedictus” from Karl Jenkins. If you are interested to hear it, listen to the performance of the “2Cellos”, two incredibly talented Croatian musicians. And the last thing: google Moira. And of course, if you haven’t read "Far Away" yet – read it (says the biased author ;-))