Denis Thériault Book order

A moving story of friendship and the power of imagination, from the award- winning author of The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman Set on the rugged north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, The Boy Who Belonged to the Sea tells the touching story of an extraordinary friendship between two young boys who have both suffered the loss of a parent. Although they have little else in common, the boys come together in their grief and take refuge in a world of their own creation, a magical undersea realm inhabited by fantastical beings. Their imaginations take them on a wild adventure, but as the lines between reality and fantasy begin to blur, their search for belonging takes them on a perilous journey that threatens to end in tragedy. Infused with his characteristic charm, Denis Thériault’s debut novel is a powerful story of grief and friendship that has touched readers’ hearts all over the world.

Tania moves from Bavaria to Montreal to fine-tune her French and fall in love. Here, she meets Bilodo, a shy postman who writes haiku and who is passionate about calligraphy. The two hit it off but then one stormy day their lives take a dramatic turn, and as their destinies become increasingly entwined the two are led into a world where nothing is as it seems.

This short 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.