Deceptively clever and utterly compelling, this beautifully written little book will continue to haunt your thoughts long after you've finished it. Set in Montreal, the world of Bilodo the postman is a simple one, but he regularly sneaks a peek into other peoples worlds by reading their handwritten letters; events take a darker turn as he deviates from voyeur into an obsessive usurper. The author uses Japanese haiku and tanka poetry to allow Bilodo to converse with the woman of his dreams; exquisite clusters of words will snag your attention and demand that you re-read them. This is essentially a book of love, of what might have been and of what could still come…
One of our Books of the Year 2014.
Selected as a BBC Radio 2 Book Club title in September 2014.
A beautifully tragic and thought-provoking tale, The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman perfectly reflects the elegance and style of Murakami and the skill and plotting of Julian Barnes. Bilodo lives a solitary daily life, routinely completing his post round every day and returning to his empty Montreal apartment. But he has found a way to break the cycle - Bilodo has taken to stealing people's mail, steaming open the envelopes and reading the letters inside. And so it is he comes across Segolene's letters. She is corresponding with Gaston, a master poet, and their letters are each composed of only three lines. They are writing each other haikus. The simplicity and elegance of their poems move Bilado and he begins to fall in love with her. But one day, out on his round, he witnesses a terrible and tragic accident. Just as Gaston is walking up to the post-box to mail his next haiku to Segolene, he is hit by a car and dies on the side of the road. And so Bilodo makes an extraordinary decision - he will impersonate Gaston and continue to write to Segolene under this guise. But how long can the deception continue for? Denis Theriault weaves a passionate and elegant tale, comic and tragic with a love story at its heart. Philosophical, rich in description and detail, it cannot fail to move.
'Captivating philosophical tale in which everything happens in slow motion, as in a dream. Endowed with a powerful imagination' Le Devoir
'Perfect little story' Montreal Review of Books
Author
About Denis Thériault
Denis Thériault is an award-winning author, playwright and screenwriter living in Montreal. He has long been fascinated by Japan, and Japanese poetry in particular. Haikus were central to his The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, which was an international bestseller, translated into sixteen languages across the world, won the Japan-Canada Book Prize and was selected for the Radio 2 Book Club in the UK. The Samurai of the Red Carnation once again revolves around traditional Japanese verse, and is set during the medieval golden age of poetry in Japan.
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