Prodigal Daughter

The University of Alberta Press has just sent me a copy of what looks to be a fascinating new book:

Myrna Kostash, Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium (U of A Press, 2010), 337pp.

Kostash, an Edmonton-based writer and author of such earlier works as All of Baba's Children, here provides what looks to be a charming mélange of memoir, travelogue, and spiritual-cultural commentary. Flipping through it, I am put in mind of William Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East or Victoria Clark's Why Angels Fall

About this book the publisher tells us:

A deep-seated questioning of her inherited religion resurfaces when Myrna Kostash chances upon the icon of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica. A historical, cultural and spiritual odyssey that begins in Edmonton, ranges around the Balkans, and plunges into a renewed vision of Byzantium in search of the Great Saint of the East delivers the author to an unexpected place—the threshold of her childhood church.

An epic work of travel memoir, Prodigal Daughter sings with immediacy and depth, rewarding readers with a profound sense of an adventure they have lived. This book will appeal to readers interested in Ukrainian-Canadian culture, the Eastern Church, and medieval history, as well as to fans of Kostash's bold creative nonfiction.

I look forward to seeing this discussed on here and reviewed in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies.