The Postman's Round — Denis Theriault

Short-listed for the 2009 Governor General's Award for Translation

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 Gigu, reviewing the novel in Le Devoir, wrote: "Le facteur tif is a captivating philosophical tale in which everything happens in slow motion, as in a dream. Endowed with a powerful imagination, Denis Thault proves to be a fabulous storyteller."