The Postman's Round

Submitted by dmacdonell on Sun, 2009-10-04 14:59

The Postman's Round

By Denis Thériault; Translated by Liedewy Hawke

978-1-55002-785-3
April 2008
120pp, Paperback
$19.99 CAD

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“Amidst lyrical description of both Montreal and Guadeloupe, as well as some lively storytelling, we are introduced to a small cast of deeply believable human beings. Those characters are sometimes troubled or stupid or cruel, but Thériault writes about them all with love. The Postman's Round is a delightful and engrossing book.” - Quill and Quire, July/August 2008

“(The Postman's Round) is meticulously structured; careful attention to details will reward the reader. It is a fascinating psychological study of a unique individual…I recommend it highly.””www.shortverse.com/digital/2008B

This short, astonishing novel conjures up the solitary daily life of Bilodo, a postman who shares his Montreal apartment with his goldfish, Bill. As a result of his indiscretion (the steaming open of personal correspondence), Bilodo becomes involved in an exchange of haiku between the woman of his dreams, a Guadeloupean beauty, and Gaston Grandpre, an eccentric intellectual whose mail Bilodo delivers. Around these events, Denis theriault weaves a passionate tragicomic love story full of twists and turns, but also rich in dazzling descriptions of lush, tropical landscapes and subtle evocations of the sober, precise art of the haiku. All this takes place against the prosaic background of a life deeply rooted in an unvarying routine. Suzanne Giguère, reviewing the novel in Le Devoir, wrote: "Le facteur émotif is a captivating philosophical tale in which everything happens in slow motion, as in a dream. Endowed with a powerful imagination, Denis Thériault proves to be a fabulous storyteller."