Il pleuvait des oiseaux

by Jocelyne Saucier

Trois octogénaires épris de liberté vivent selon leur propre loi en forêt profonde dans le nord de l'Ontario. Non loin de là, deux hommes, l'un gardien d'un hôtel fantôme et l'autre planteur de marijuana, veillent sur l'ermitage des vieillards. Leur vie d'hommes libres et solitaires sera perturbée par l'arrivée des deux femmes. D'abord un photographe en quête du dernier survivant des grands feux qui ont ravagé la région au début du XXe siècle. Puis arrive la deuxième visiteuse, très vieille celle-là, Marie-Desneige, un être aérien et lumineux qui détient le secret des amours impossibles. La vie ne sera la même à l'ermitage.
Il pleuvait des oiseaux est un superbe récit qui nous entraîne au plus profond des forêts canadiennes, où le mot liberté prend tout son sens, et dans lequel l'émotion , brute et vive, jaillit à chaque page.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Book Club, France, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novels

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Jocelyne Saucier (born 1948 in Clair, New Brunswick) is a Canadian novelist and journalist based in Quebec.

Educated in political science at the Université Laval, Saucier worked as a journalist in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec before publishing her debut novel, La Vie comme une image, in 1996. That book was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 1996 Governor General's Awards. Her second novel, Les Héritiers de la mine, was a finalist for the Prix France-Québec in 2001, and her third novel, Jeanne sur les routes, was a finalist at the 2006 Governor General's Awards. Her fourth novel, Il pleuvait des oiseaux, won the Prix France-Québec, the Prix Ringuet, the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie, the Prix des lecteurs de Radio-Canada and the Prix littéraire des collégiens, while And the Birds Rained Down (its English translation by Rhonda Mullins), was a finalist for the Governor General's Award for French to English translation at the 2013 Governor General's Awards.

Il pleuvait des oiseaux was selected for the 2013 edition of Le Combat des livres, where it was championed by dancer and broadcaster Geneviève Guérard. And the Birds Rained Down will be defended by Martha Wainwright in the 2015 edition of Canada Reads.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was completely captivated by this story!
Three elderly men who had chosen to live out the remainder of their lives in the forest, with the right to live (or die) at their own choosing and with their dignity in place. They have lived this way for awhile, they each have their own cabins and they are all in their upper eighties.
The arrival of two pot farmers, a female photographer, and later.. an elderly woman, change everything.
Just read it!!!
Thank you to Diane Barnes for bringing this book to my attention!

A 2015 Canada Reads choice

[Diane Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this 5 stars because it was 160 pages of pure joy for me. If you want a plot recap, refer to the GoodReads description. It is all of that and a little bit more, but it introduced me to a group of elderly men and one woman who were all endearing in their own particular way, but were far from being stereotypical. The Canadian wilderness was a major player here as well. Throw in a little history of the brutal fires that swept through Ontario in the early 1900's, a little mystery, a perfect ending with just enough dangling threads to keep me wondering, and, all in all, a great read. Wonderfully offbeat. This was a book club assignment from a Canadian member who likes to share her country's literature. Great choice, Marilyn.

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

In which people go missing, a death pact adds spice to life, and the lure of the forest and of love makes life worth living. The story seems far-fetched, but there are witnesses, so its truth cannot be doubted. To doubt it would be to deprive us of an improbable other world that offers refuge to special beings.
This is a story of three old men who chose to disappear into the forest. It’s the story of three souls in love with freedom.
‘Freedom is being able to choose your life.’
‘And your death.’
That’s what Tom and Charlie would tell their visitor. Between them they have lived almost two centuries. Tom is eighty-six years old and Charlie is three years more. They believe they have years left in them yet.
The third man can no longer speak. He has just died. Dead and buried, Charlie would tell the visitor, who would refuse to believe him, so long had been the road to reach Boychuck, Ted or Ed or Edward – the variations in the man’s first name and the tenuousness of his destiny will haunt the entire tale.
The visitor is a photographer who is as yet unnamed.
And love? Well, we’ll have to wait for love.

The photographer wanders into this place, as well as into this story, in search of people who survived the Great Fires. The above mentioned Boychuck she came in search of had lost his entire family in the Great Fire of 1916, a tragedy that trailed behind him, a fire that remains the deadliest in Canadian history. As time passes, the photographer will become even more a part of this story.

This is a beautifully shared story that is revealed slowly over 155 pages, (161 pages on kindle). It seems like the perfect read for these days where we all feel so isolated, to spend time within these remote woods with so few people but an abundance of a quietly accepting love.

Many thanks to Betsy, whose review prompted me to add this one, and to all my other friends whose reviews further enhanced my desire to read this.

Betsy’s Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Zoeytron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is a story that is an original.  Three old men, living off the land, separate yet together.  Solitary thoughts, man's response to nature, the freedom to live as you want, and the freedom to die on one's own terms.  Their lives are about to undergo a drastic change.  This was pure gold, I almost found myself resenting it every time I turned a page because it brought the end that much closer.  

This title was not available at our library, but the wonderful Mobius program found a copy to loan at the William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this 155-page novel as slowly as I could and still it went too fast. So now I will take a pause, and then read it again fairly soon.

There isn't much to say after reading this kind of beauty. Mostly "Thank you." Thank you, Jocelyne Saucier for writing it, Rhonda Mullins for such a sensitive and delicate translation. Thank you, Diane Barnes for reviewing it, thanks to her unknown book club for picking it so that she read it and shared it with me and other Goodreaders.

I wish I could read this for the first time again, but that is impossible, so I'll go on, as Saucier's amazing characters do. I'll sit on my couch and watch the words go by. (If you read this book, you'll understand that line in a deeper way.) This book made me wish I were Canadian; what a wonderful selection for "Canada Reads."

7/27/20 Update
I just reread this for my book club, but really for myself. I pored over every word. It is impossible to read such elegance and beauty slowly enough. What a masterpiece.

[Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three men go into the Canadian wilderness to live and die on their own terms. One of the men is Ted Boychuck, a survivor of the Great Fire of 1916. In 1916, settlers were using slash and burn techniques to clear land for homes and farms as well as for the railroad. During dry weather, several of these fires joined together to become an uncontrolled conflagration. The people had no warning and no ready means of escape, except for a few that escaped into rivers and lakes, and some on a train. In this novel, a photographer, obsessed with the story of the Great Fire, finds two of the three men in their wilderness camp. By the time she arrives, Ted Boychuck has died, but meeting Tom and Charles will lead to life altering events for all of them.

This novel by Jocelyne Saucier was written in French and has won many awards including the Prix France-Québec. The translation into English by Rhonda Mullins was a finalist for the Governor’s General Award for French to English translation in 2013. I became interested in this novel after reading several positive reviews from GR friends and now, I happily join in their praise.

It’s short, only 160 pages, but the author packs in a lot of humanity. The photographer is somewhere in her 40s. She’s been taking pictures of survivors of the Great Fire for some time, collecting their stories. She has immersed herself in these stories to the point that she has nightmares. When she meets Tom and Charles, much to their chagrin, she becomes a repeat visitor.

Two younger men, Bruno and Steve, grow a marijauna plantation in the forest and are friends with the old men, occasionally bringing in supplies. One day, Bruno shows up with his old auntie, a gray haired little bird-like woman, who has lived since the age of 16 in a mental asylum. How they become a community and more is so well written. The auntie chooses the name Marie-Desneige and calls the photographer Ange-Aimée, the name of a fellow patient protector at the asylum where she had lived for so many years.

Marie blossoms like a wilted flower that suddenly receives the blessings of rain. She is like the newborn who is seeing things for the first time and everyone in the encampment is in her thrall, open to life in ways they had not previously been. Death has to take a backseat but the narrator reminds us that he is always there, biding his time.

In Boychuck’s cabin, the little community takes note of his paintings he left behind depicting his experience of the Great Fire. The full force of the trauma that was Boychuck’s life is revealed through his dark smokey art and the spectral light that surrounds some images. Marie is the only one who can interpret the images. To my mind, trauma calls to trauma. Those who have suffered are made sufficiently porous to the sufferings of others.

These characters are all noteworthy but it is the photographer who most interests me. Tom and Charles ask her if she doesn’t have a life. Why does she want to spend so much time with old people? I equate the photographer with the storyteller-reader. She is an observer / eyes, just as the reader is eyes-ears, soaking it all in. She turns her search into photography, thereby telling a story, just as with each book we read, our interpretation in a review says something about us. Like the photographer, sometimes we can’t name ourselves, but what we write often reveals substantial clues about who we are. Beautiful story that would work well for group discussions.

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a priceless gem! I love all types of books, but I do think my favourites are character driven, and this is one such novel.

“ This is a story of three old men who chose to disappear into the forest.
It’s the story of three souls in love with freedom.
Freedom is being able to choose your life. And your death.”

This is a short novel filled to the brim with beautiful writing and translation and with people I won’t soon forget. “Old” people for the most part with a lot of history in their back pockets.

The author’s dedication is to Marie- Ange, her aunt, who is the inspiration for the female title character. There are 2 short interviews with the author -both easily obtained by googling- that I found very enlightening.

My thanks to Betsy Robinson, whose review prompted me to immediately download it from the library.

Highly recommend this book!!

[Andy Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joyful, captivating, and very, very beautiful.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A photojournalist is tracking down people whom survived the terrifying fires in Northern Ontario at the turn of the century.. When talking to people she hears about this young man who seemed to be many places at once, helping people, saving a few and standing in the water with a bunch of flowers. They called him Boychuck and she wants to find him.

She finds him living in the woods with two other men, each living in their own cabin and living life on their own terms. They are each there for different reason and her visits and the unanticipated arrival of another older lady, another escapee from the life she was living, will change things for all. Two pot growers are the only connection they have to the outside world.

This quiet novel, the endearing characters and the beautiful descriptions of the natural setting, made this a wonderful novel.
There is more to the story, in such a small book, it covers quite a bit and all of it is written in a heartfelt manner. The story is quite poignant and the ending was unexpected, but seemed fitting.

[Jsiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

haunting, curious, fully captivating... and I don't know really why....I was always surprised how quickly I read this... how the page number stared at me at the bottom...higher each time...realistic in which it has the same disappointments you meet in life... magical in the way that the characters are free and still bound by love.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t remember ever reading a book like this before. It came across in my audible selections and then I curiously explored some reviews and there it was.. found within the gold minds of so many of my dear reliable friends! What glowing reviews did I uncover… a gold mine! I was to discover once more that sometimes it is not so bad coming late to the party!
Even with all that I read within the reviews I was not prepared for the lumps in my throat created by the love of old friends, the misty eyes that came when reading of blossoming love, and the intensity of fear and the tightening that overtook my chest when reading of the birds raining down.
This is a true gem and I am so grateful to have stumbled upon the audio version here which was done with great beauty. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
As always I am indebted to my golden Goodread friends who with their gifts of writing enrich my life. ❤️Cheri, Antoinette, Angela, Jennifer, and so may more.

[Paula Mota · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gostava das suas vozes gastas, dos rostos devastados, gostava dos seus gestos lentos, das suas hesitações perante uma palavra que lhes foge, uma recordação que se recusa a aparecer (…). A idade avançada afigurava-se-lhe como o último refúgio da liberdade, onde nos desfazemos do que nos prende e deixamos o espírito libertar-se.

Para quem como eu tem alergia a livros de velhotes como o Ove e centenários-que-não-sei-quê, a escolha de “E Choviam Pássaros” seria até um pouco bizarra, mas o título sugestivo, a sobriedade da capa e a primeira página tornaram-no irresistível assim que o vi.

A história é inverosímil, mas, tendo existido testemunhas, não devemos recusar-nos a acreditar nela. Seríamos privados desses outros lugares improváveis que abrigam três seres únicos.

Serve esse preâmbulo apenas para provar a minha isenção em relação a este magnífico livro que se centra numa comunidade geriátrica isolada na floresta canadiana, mas que nada tem a ver com sentimentalismo bacoco. Aqui a pieguice foi substituída pela compaixão, a extravagância pela dureza da vida e a ladainha do velhinho abandonado pelos filhos pela autodeterminação de deixar o mundo para trás e até abandonar este invólucro mortal quando o corpo não aguentar mais.

Explicou que a lata continha um remédio de último recurso. Aqui não há médico nem hospital, disse ele, e há limites para que uma pessoa pode suportar. (…) Ninguém aqui tem vontade de morrer, apressou-se ele a acrescentar, mas também ninguém quer uma vida que já não é a sua. (…) A liberdade de viver ou de morrer é o que há de melhor para escolher a vida.

Isolados na floresta vivem três velhos eremitas acossados pela doença, o vício e o trauma, tendo como pano de fundo o devastador incêndio florestal que grassou no Ontário em 1916, que causou 223 mortos.

Eu chegara até ali seguindo a lenda de Boychuck, o rapaz que caminhara sobre os escombros fumegantes, o homem que se refugiara na floresta para fugir dos seus fantasmas, um dos últimos sobreviventes do Grande Incêndio de Matheson, em 1916.

A chegada de uma fotógrafa interessada na tragédia e de uma frágil idosa vem perturbar esta pequena comunidade formada pelos três amigos e os seus cães.

A construção da cabana de Marie-Desneige absorveu-os a ponto de terem esquecido a sua futura ocupante, sentada no seu cepo e passeando por eles um olhar perdido.
- Um gato, eu queria ter um gato na minha casa.

Em "E Choviam Pássaros", a morte é, naturalmente, uma presença constante pela idade avançada das personagens e pelos seus problemas de saúde físicos e mentais, mas aqui ela é quase uma entidade palpável e, no entanto, destemidamente evocada.

E a morte? Bom, a morte ainda espreita. Não nos devemos preocupar com a morte, ela está à espreita em todas as histórias.

Se é possível um livro sobre a velhice e a morte ser luminoso, foi essa a sensação com que fiquei durante toda a leitura de “E Choveram Pássaros”, que por essa difícil tarefa ocupa um lugar especial na lista de 2023.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"And the Birds Rained Down" by Jocelyne Saucier, translated from the French by Rhonda Mullins, is a short novel about a photographer who encounters a group of aging recluses as she searches for survivors of the "Great Fires" in northern Ontario in the early 20th century. It is told in a unique style and focuses on single characters as the story develops, with surprises throughout. Art, love, life.

Lauren W. discussed this on Episode 123 of the Reading Envy Podcast, and I wanted to read it immediately. It also counts for my 2018 Canada/Alaska reading goal... Set in Ontario, written by an author from Quebec.

[Friederike Knabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jocelyne Saucier's novel, "And the birds rained down", took me totally by surprise. Starting with the rather odd title to the first paragraphs, I wondered why this slim volume had become a 2015 finalist in Canada's annual book competition, CANADA READS. The more I read, however, the more I was enjoying this unusual and touching story and the way the characters reveal themselves slowly and quite reluctantly. Saucier writes with sensititvity and a sense of humor; the book's narrative structure is quite complex and we being surprised as we follow the different voices. The author keeps surprising the reader with unexpected twists, drawing us into the story. A love story of an unusual kind, a testament to living life to its fullest level of freedom and choice and enjoying every bit of it. Intrigued? So you should be.

Jocelyne Saucier's unnamed narrator gives us a few hints about the story upfront and returns from time to time. It is a story "[I]n which people go missing, a death pact adds spice to life, and the lure of the forest and of love makes life worth living." Three old men have "disappeared" into a forest and live their a kind of vagabond / curmodgeon existence, leaving everything (or most of it) behind. A couple of younger guys bring supplies that are not available in the forest. Each in their late eighties or more..., their motto is: "Freedom is being able to choose your life." "And your death."

We wouldn't know much about these men at all were it not for a nosy photographer in her forties ... and a little old lady who also escapes from a life she hadn't chosen. They both disturb the quiet life and the comfort routines of the old guys. Actually, we know from the outset that one of the threesome has already left this world, yet he remains very much a presence and a mystery.

One more topic to touch on that provides part of the backdrop and also the initial reason for the photographer to treck into the Northern Ontario hinterland: the Great Fires that happened in that region in the early decades of the 20th century. One of the old guys had survived one of them as a young boy and many rumors were being told about what happened to his life after that. The photographer wants to know.

Saucier has a wonderful quiet, often poetic and subtle way to tell her story. Written in different voices, each adding his or her own perspective and personality. The result is an intricate portrait of strong spirited individuals and their community, set against the background of the vast and wild landscape of the North. Underlying it all is a most delightful and thought provoking meditation on "aging and self-determination".

And the raining birds of the title? One of the child survivors of the fire evoked her impression in this way. "It was raining birds, she told her, "when the wind came up and covered the sky with a dome of black smoke, the air was in short supply, and you couldn't breathe for the heat and the smoke, neither the people nor the birds, and they fell like rain at our feet."

Jocelyne Saucier is an award winning Canadian author. In its original French version, published in 2011, the novel won several awards, including the prestigous Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie. Translated expertly by Rhonda Mullins. Her translation was a finalist for the 2013 Governor General Awards for French to English translation.

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by an artist. Excuse me, written and translated by artists.

One aspect of the artistry contained here was the way perfectly ordinary daily events, added up, turn into a much larger story.

Another aspect is the unexpected reveal, halfway through the story, of the significance of one of the men's activities.

Then there's the ease with with the author mingles the fantastical with the mundane. (Unless we're actually supposed to believe that people in their nineties can survive off the grid through a northern Ontario winter. This is something that tests the mettle of people half that age.) Similarly, mixing events of the present with events that have occurred decades ago.

These characters are going to reside in my head for a long time. I rather wish the ending hadn't been so tidy and abrupt.....I could have happily spent several more hours learning about these people and their other secrets.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

(big sigh) Be still my heart... THAT was one really EXCEPTIONAL novel! I loved every single bit—without exception—and every character. Huge thanks are due to Rhonda Mullins for what, I assume, must have been a terrific job of translating it. I only wish I could read French well enough to have read the original.

So, as I said, I loved everything about this book but some things really stood out for me... Charlie and Marie-Desneige. Who wouldn't be enchanted by their love? To have found each other—so late in life—and love each other so completely they'd do anything for each other!💘 It was so endearing and absolutely warmed my heart. Actually, I lied. There was one small bit I didn't like. I absolutely did not feel it was necessary to end the lives of the dogs at the end. That immediately upset me. It just wasn't necessary! Except, I suppose, for Tom's dog since his final wish was to die with his dog when he felt it was time. But they could have kept the other two dogs with them or found new homes for them. There was no reason for them to be poisoned.🐾

All in all, And the Birds Rained Down will go down as one of my all-time favourites! HIGHLY Recommended! (and far less than 200 pages!😉)

[ولاء شكري · Rating 3 out of 5]

"العيون هي أهم شيء عند العجائز، فجلد الوجه يترهل، ويتدلى، ويتجعد، وتتراكم التجاعيد حول الفم، والعينين، والأنف، والأذنين، ويصبح الوجه موحشاً وغامضاً، لا يمكن استنباط أي شيء من العجوز إلا عندما ننظر في عينيه، فهي التي تحتفظ بتاريخ حياته"

"تيد" كان إنساناً منكسراً، و"شارلي" عاشقاً للطبيعة، و"توم" عاش كل مباهج الحياة، أما "ماري" فلها حكاية خاصة .. جَمعهم الفرار من حياة تركوها خلفهم، وأغلقوا بابها ولم يرغبوا قط في العودة إليها، ومُصَوِّرة تغلغلت لحياتهم وأحبتهم أكثر مما كانت تتصور، أحبت أصواتهم المنهكة، ووجوههم الذابلة، أحبت حركاتهم البطيئة، وترددهم أمام كلمة افلتت منهم، وذِكرى تأبى أن تختفي، أحبت رؤيتهم ينسابون مع تيارات أفكارهم، ويغفون وسط إحدى الجمل، فالسن المتقدمة كانت بالنسبه لها بمثابة ملجأ الحرية الوحيد، الذي يتحرر فيه المُسِن من قيوده ويترك عقله ويذهب حيثما يشاء.

رواية مفعمة بالمشاعر العذبة والمؤلمة، تجتاحك روائح الغابة، وحكايات الماضى، وحب يحيا بين أجسادٍ تغضنت، ولوحات قاتمة تحكى لك مشاهد مفجعة عن حرائق ماتيسون ١٩١٦م

" إن جنون النار مثله مثل العمى، يُعدان من الظواهر المؤقتة التي قد تدوم عدة ثواني أو دقائق على الأكثر، لكنها تكون مميتة إذا لم يتواجد أحد لٍيُقدم لك المساعدة، وذلك لأن نقص الأكسجين في المخ يؤدي إلى الاختناق بل أسوء من ذلك إلى الإحتراق والتفحم .. في حاله الجنون يكون الوضع أكثر خداعاً، إذ ينمو نوع من الانجذاب نحو انتشار ألسنه اللهب، وقوتها، وتأثيرها، وألوانها البراقة وسط الدخان، ويستمر الشخص في تأمله لها مذعوراً طوال سباقه من أجل البقاء على قيد الحياة، كلما زادت أعداد الموتى يزداد إلحاح التأمل المتعذر جمحه، للمضي قدماً من أجل التأكد أنه لا يزال حياً"

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was eager to read this, quite simply because the book’s title indicated to me that the author has the ability to portray events through lyrical prose. In this respect I was not disappointed! I also have an affinity for everything French, liking the culture as I do. French Canadian, as in this case, or French French, doesn’t matter to me.

The book deals with an incendiary storm, here the great 1916 Matheson Fire in northern Ontario. Settlers in the region cleared land using the slash and burn method. Fires spread to communities around Black River; Matheson, Kelso, Nushka, Iroquois Falls, Porquis Junction and Ramore were obliterated, both Homer and Monteith heavily damaged and separate fires burned around Cochrane. Memories haunted those who survived. A legend arose of a boy called Boychuck seen stumbling through smoldering flames, some say, clenching a bouquet of flowers. What is fact? What is fiction? Having completed the story, I am still not quite sure. The heat from the fire was so intense that birds rained down from the sky. Reading the book is to experience this fire.

In the novel, a photographer at the end of the century is searching for the now elderly Boychuck. Is he still alive?

However, this is only half of the story. It is also about Marie Desneiges, an elderly woman who escapes from an insane asylum, having been incarcerated for sixty-six years, since she was sixteen. This part of the story too, begins on a groundwork of fact. The author had an aunt named Marie-Ange. At sixteen, she was put in an asylum, just as Marie Desneiges of the story. The author’s aunt died in the asylum. What will be the fate of the fictive Marie Desneiges? This part of the story worked less well for me than that about the fire. It reads as a fairy tale.

Self-determination, over both one’s life and one’s death, is the central theme. Also ageing and self-expression through art. And a love story.

I do not like the ending. I was left both confused and surprised. Too fanciful and too unclear. It is not simply open-ended; it is confusing.

The book is translated from French to English by Rhonda Mullins. I marvel at her ability to make the text flow so well, so lyrically, so beautifully. Parts reads as prose poetry. It does not in the least feel translated. She artfully, and for pronounced symbolism, leaves some words untranslated—such as characters’ names.

Ann Noble, Kathleen Gati, Kimberly Farr, Bo Foxworth and Robertson Dean narrate the audiobook very, very well. The different natators do not take different chapters; each one instead personifies a different character. Each narrator does an excellent job of intoning “their” character. Four stars for the narration.

There is no author’s note clarifying what is fact and what fiction.

[Shaimaa شيماء · Rating 4 out of 5]

حكاية غريبة، مصورة تتبع الناجين من الحرائق الكبرى بعد مضي أعوام طويلة على هذه الحرائق، تبحث عن رجل بعينه قيلت عنه بعض الحكايات الغريبة عندما فقد عائلته كلها في سن الخامسة عشر..

يقودها البحث إلى عالم آخر عاشه هذا الرجل مع اثنان آخران هربا من الحياة واعتزلا في الغابة لأسباب مختلفة ليقضيا ما تبقى من العمر في هذه العزلة الاختيارية، يترقبون الموت ولا يخشونه.

تنقلب حياتهم عندما تقتحمها بشكل غريب مسنة قاربت الثمانين هاربة من مستشفى الامراض العقلية التي دخلتها في عمر السادسة عشر!!!

الرواية حافلة بالمشاعر؛ الفقد، الحب اليائس، الموت، والأمل الذي قد يأتي فجأة من حيث لا تنتظر ولا تحتسب.

عالم العجائز ومشاعرهم اتصور أني لم أقرا رواية تقترب بمثل هذا القدر من هذا العالم، فقدر العجائز للأسف التهميش والوحدة، وخصوصا في العالم الغربي.

"الموت صديقهما القديم، كانا يتحدثان عنه كما يحلو لهما، إنه يتتبعهما عن قرب منذ فترة طويلة، لدرجة إحساسهما بأنه موجود ويتربص بهما في مكان ما، إن محادثتهما الصباحية هي إحدى طرق إبقائه على مسافة منهما ".

الرواية لكاتبة ومترجمة وأنا أحب الكاتبات والمترجمات ❤❤❤

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful and amazing book, which I fear if I described I would not do justice to. I will borrow from Diane, who started a chain reaction with her review, by saying if you want to know more you can read the book description. I would also say, knowing too much about this wonderful story before reading it will take away the pure joy of discovery that many of us here on Goodreads have recently experienced. Each time I picked up this book, I felt like I was stepping into a dream, a thrilling cinematic dream. The story of three old men living off the grid in Northern Ontario and the small cast of characters who discover and interact with them will have you turning pages, perhaps flying through the book, but I recommend taking your time with it to absorb all the wonderfulness! Thank you Goodreads community- I would not have known about this book otherwise! I'm grateful to Hennepin County (MN) library for having a copy available.

Speaking of cinematic, there was a movie made of this in 2019. Here's a trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kj_W...

On a side note, this is the third book in a row I've read that prominently featured Aunts - all terrific books!
Aunt Vittoria in The Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante's new one.
Aunt Esme in The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell.
Aunt Marie-Desniege in this one.

Why I'm reading this: I had not heard of this book before seeing several 4 and 5 star reviews from Goodreads friends. What attracted me to this besides the great reviews is that it is short, coming in at only 160pp! I have developed a great appreciation of "slim volumes that pack a punch" recently and am hoping this is one of them.

[Nika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Важко оцінити її об'єктивно, бо дуже триггерна книга. Але прекрасна основа - така клаптиковість всіх героїв, вони всі й дають одну картину. Ти не знаєш їх до кінця, невідома повністю їх історія (хто і як прийшов на дику територію), але цього достатньо. Достатньо, щоб звикнути до них і спробувати зрозуміти.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

E Choviam Pássaros chega-nos do Quebec e tem como cenário o norte do Ontário, uma região de florestas e lagos, outrora percorrida por caçadores de peles.

Ted, Charlie e Tom, três anacoretas, vivem em cabanas, longe de toda a civilização, solitários, excepto pela companhia dos seus cães, mas suficientemente próximos para se visitarem com regularidade.
Escolheram a liberdade – a liberdade de viver à sua maneira e, acima de tudo, de decidir sobre a própria morte.

A chegada de duas mulheres àquele recanto da floresta vai agitar a vida de Ted e Charlie.

Os incêndios que devastaram o norte do Ontário no início do século XX e a lenda omnipresente de "Boychuck" servem como fio condutor desta história.

Trata-se de um romance muito bem escrito, que reflecte sobre a velhice, a morte – sempre presente no passado e no presente –, a exclusão social, a doença mental e os amores perdidos, apagados ou esquecidos.
No entanto, está longe de ser um livro triste ou depressivo, a história ergue-se sobre três pilares fundamentais: a escolha, a liberdade e a empatia.

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who among us hasn’t fantasized from time to time about escaping the rat-race and hiding away in the wilderness? This was a beautifully written tale of three older men who had done just that, supported by two younger guys who are growing marijuana out in that same wilderness. It is also about the disruption that occurs when two women enter the picture, one of them the elderly aunt of one of the pot-growers, the other a photographer searching for people who survived an enormous historic forest fire. The elderly aunt has spent the vast majority of her life in an institution for the mentally ill, and her nephew, knowing that there is freedom available out in the woods, spins a tale for the authorities and drives her out into the forest.

For me, this book was an exploration of dependence versus independence, our human need for companionship, and the desire to choose life on one’s own terms. Several of my own elderly friends have told me how invisible they feel as they grow older. “Younger people stop seeing you at some point and it’s hard to get service in stores or get answers to questions,” one of them told me. In North America we have adopted a very youth focused culture and we no longer honour our elderly citizens, choosing instead to warehouse them in seniors’ centres and hospitals. It is such as shame, as my older friends have so much experience to draw on and wisdom to impart. It has been a painful experience to see them declining, losing their independence and their memories, finding it more difficult to visit with them as the months progress.

The nature of art is explored through the paintings of Ted, the recently deceased member of the original three men, as well as through the work of the photographer (whose name we never learn). It is during one of the photographer’s interviews with a survivor of the great fire that we hear the phrase that gives this novel its poetic title. The translator did a superb job—it did not feel like a translation at all.

[Wyndy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update 10/30/22: Because I keep coming back to this book over and over, in conversations with others and in my frequent musings about life and aging, I’m changing my rating to five stars and putting this one on my favorites/reread shelf. It has met the test for five-star staying power.


I closed this book with a deep sigh of complete satisfaction. Award-winning Canadian author and former journalist, Jocelyn Saucier, chose to end this beautifully unique novel with several dangling threads, and rightly so. Life is rarely a tidy or precise affair. Neither is death. To live and die as you choose. To lighten the burden of another. To share your precious final years, or maybe days, with few regrets, kindred souls, and a tinplated box - just in case.

This armchair visit to the deep woods of Northern Canada with four octogenarians, one nameless photographer, two laidback marijuana growers, four devoted dogs named Drink, Kino, Darling and Chummy, one lucky cat named Monseigneur, and hundreds of haunting images of the great fires that ravaged Ontario at the turn of the century along with an entire lifetime spent in an archaic mental asylum, was a superb start to my 2022 summer literary staycation. 4.5 stars.

“They had left behind lives they had closed the door on. No desire to go back to them, no desire other than to get up in the morning with the feeling of having a day all to themselves and no one to find fault with that.”

[Paltia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Midway in just when I was questioning what this book was about the story ignites and burns like the fire at it’s core and reveals it’s charming magic. A small group of men becomes transformed with the arrival of two unique women. They join their community adding a feminine element which creates a balanced universe of their own making. As the story opens the photographer is introduced. She’s documenting the great Matheson fire of north Ontario. She seeks out the survivors, listens to their stories and takes their pictures. Her search for the elusive Boychuck brings her to the end of the road where she encounters a man and his dog. Gradually she learns the philosophy he and his friends live by - no one wants to die but no one wants a life no longer his own either. They are there, each with their own reasons, to live away, far away from the rest of the world. Each man has built a cabin. “A cabin to live in was your companion in all your thoughts. With a cabin to live in, you were never alone.” The next woman to arrive has escaped, with the help of her uncle, from the mental institution where she was locked up as a 16 year old girl. Her true identity emerges and she selects a new name, Marie Desneige. The men build her the little house they feel she deserves believing “the insanity might be just that, too much sadness. She simply needed some space.” As she experiences the natural world around her for the first time the men can’t help but share in her delight. Her gift of vision allows her to see things previously hidden from others. The story twists and turns with love and death playing equally vital parts. This is such a wonderful story of a group of people who chose to move away and inhabit a hidden place like foxes in the undergrowth. They live in and with nature full of the rhythms and energies of the wild. The fire, warmth and the sparks of new relationships are a constant. The heat two characters bring each other in the bone chilling cold of winter grows as it’s tended into love. Feeding the wood stove to bring warmth as the group gathers round to tell stories keeps the long winter at bay. The sun’s warmth melts the snow and ice to bring summer around again. Round and around they go as the seasons change so do they. These folks learn to shine. They begin to give of themselves healing each other. They find out what’s been dormant and deep inside and feel their souls thaw. Each offers something, be it physically by holding someone close to allay their night terrors,by painting to express the stories of those long gone so they not be forgotten or by gracefully accepting the gift of a name to forge a new friendship. It just feels so damn good to read this. Everything in their lives they do for the good - never to the detriment of their fellow beings, human and animal. It’s about a journey each character takes to their own place of wisdom and forgiveness. This rag tag group of forgotten souls are united and moved by the mysteries which are seldom seen. A story as pure as birdsong and as full of it’s spontaneous joy and beauty.

[Nelson Zagalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este livro, "E Choviam Pássaros" (2011) de Jocelyne Saucier, enquadra um mundo-história com aparente pouca novidade, apresentando um pequeno grupo de pessoas, no Canadá, que decide retirar-se da sociedade para viver no interior das florestas do norte, totalmente fora da rede. O que o torna distinto é o facto do grupo ser constituído por pessoas idosas, bastante além da idade de reforma, prontas a passar os derradeiros momentos de forma isolada e em total comunhão com a natureza. A juntar a isto, temos a escrita de Jocelyne Saucier que vai entaramelando aquilo que conta, de modo a criar todo uma fábula menos concreta, menos perfeita, oferecendo-lhe uma certa nebulosidade para criar a necessária distância, mantendo a privacidade daqueles que vamos observando. É um poema, é um hino à natureza humana, ao humanismo.

Foi feito um filme, homónimo em 2019, mas acho que não o consigo ver pois destruiria essa nebulosidade do mundo-história, tornaria tudo demasiado real, eliminando a componente de sonho que só a escrita pode potenciar no nosso processo mental de efabulação.


https://narrativax.blogspot.com/2024/...

[Viv JM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of three elderly men are living out their remaining days cut off from civilisation in a remote forest location, their only contact with the outside world a nearby cannabis farmer. Things change with the arrival of two women - one is a photographer with an interest in the survivors of the forest fires of the early 1900s, and the other is the elderly aunt of one of the pot growers who has spent her life locked away in psychiatric institutions.

This book takes a thoughtful and empathetic look at what constitutes a good life, and a good death. It tackles issues of institutionalisation, dignity, freedom and euthanasia but is never at all preachy, and I never felt that the author was emotionally manipulating the reader in any way. The love story between Charlie and Marie-Desneige was one of the most tender and heartfelt I have ever read.

An unusual and rather lovely book - I only wish it had been longer!

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine interessante Erzähweise: eine Erzählerin, die über allem schwebt und hier und da doch in die verschiedenen Protagonisten schlüpft. Wenig wörtlich Rede, dafür ganz viel Erzählen. Die Kulisse mit den Hütten im Wald am See hat mir supergut gefallen und über das Thema "Alt sein" habe noch sehr selten gelesen. Eine Szene gegen Ende hat mir doch ziemlich zu schaffen gemacht, aber so richtig nah bin ich leider niemandem gekommen. Bin trotzdem froh, es gelesen zu haben.

[Babywave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine wunderschöne ruhige Geschichte, die Kunst und Leben miteinander verbindet. Die von Freundschaft, Loyalität und Liebe handelt. Außerdem erzählt sie von der Versöhnung mit dem Leben.
Eine Geschichte, die berührt und zum Nachdenken anregt.

Drei Männer, die sich im Alter in den nordkanadischen Wald zurückziehen, um dort selbstbestimmt zu leben und zu sterben. Doch dann kommt eine ältere Dame hinzu und eine Fotografin und es beginnt eben diese wunderschöne Geschichte.

Für mich hätte die Autorin noch weiter ins Detail gehen können, was das Leben anderen zwei Männer angeht.
Ein Protagonist steht hier im Mittelpunkt. Die Geschichte der anderen beiden Männer bleiben nur Randgeschichten. Dies fand ich etwas schade. Aber letztlich geht es hauptsächlich darum, das Hier und Jetzt zu genießen und die verbleibende Zeit, die einem noch im Leben bleibt, so auszufüllen, dass man erfüllt und würdevoll von dieser Welt gehen kann….. Manchmal hält das Leben auch im Alter noch Überraschungen bereit.

Alles in allem toll erzählt. Emotional gesehen, hat mich die Geschichte beeindruckt.

[iva° · Rating 4 out of 5]

ovo je jedno fino pismo. autorica je isplela priču oko Velikog požara kod mathesona (kanada) 1916. godine kada je poginulo više od 200 ljudi i u centar stavila teda boychucka, "dječaka koji je lutao zgarištima". udahnula mu je novi život, smještajući ga u kolibu u divljini, daleko od civilizacije, s još dvojicom susjeda. njih trojica, ted, tom i charlie, svaki iz svojih razloga, kao gotovo stogodišnji starci, u tišini proživljavaju posljednje godine svojih života. dala im je i dvije družice, ali više o njima saznat ćeš ako pročitaš knjigu.
isplati se. pogotovo ako voliš prirodu, a smrt ti nije bauk.