The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault (Hesperus Press) will be featured on the Radio 2 Book Club on Monday 1 December.
The book was selected with the help of a panel made up of Reading Agency and library staff from across the UK.
We have an exclusive extract available for you to read as well as a discussion questions for your reading group.
The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman
Secretly steaming open envelopes and reading the letters inside, Bilodo has found an escape from his lonely and routine life as a postman. When one day he comes across a mysterious letter containing only a single haiku, he finds himself avidly caught up in the relationship between a long-distance couple, who write to each other using only beautiful poetry. He feasts on their words, vicariously living a life for which he longs.
But it will only be a matter of time before his world comes crashing down around him…
Selection panel review
Our reading panel loved this book – here’s one of their reviews:
“This is my favourite of the books I had to review. It was a pleasure to read and I will re-read it many times, particularly on my daily commute. The language of the book is cinematic and, even if I hadn’t known that it had been translated from the original French, I’d have guessed it from its sophisticated feel. It’s elegantly written – clever but unpretentious, straightforward but idiosyncratic.
The whole concept is very well thought through and beautifully presented, from the length of the story, to the format of the book, as well as its design – there is no padding, nothing is superfluous. In that sense, it is itself like a haiku."
About the author
Denis Thériault is an award-winning author and screenwriter living in Montreal. The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman is his second novel.
A word from Denis about being chosen for the Radio 2 Book Club
“I am glad and excited. The novel was initially published in French, in Montréal, then in English in Toronto, but it was more or less ignored. I was very happy when I learned that it would be published in the UK by Hesperus Press, and thus could reach more readers. And happier still when I had been informed that it had been selected by the BBC Radio 2 Book Club: it is a fantastic opportunity for the book to become better known.
The poet John Burnside, kindly commenting on my novel, said that it was ‘a tale about what happens when we allow a romantic fantasy to blind us to the loves and joys that the world has to offer, and at the same time a study of the pleasures and snares that attend such self-enchantment’. I think he was terribly clairvoyant. I wanted The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman to be a contemporary tale about love and imagination in this highly connected era of paradoxical solitude, and I suppose that many people could recognise themselves in Bilodo, who deliberately chooses to live in his dreams instead of reality. This does not mean that Bilodo is a loser. He certainly is a dreamer but an active one; he is a poetic warrior who will fight to the end to protect the wonderful imaginary world that he created for himself and for the woman he loves without really knowing her."
Get involved
Tune in to Simon Mayo’s Drivetime show on Monday 1 December to hear a live interview with Denis Thériault talking about his book.
Win a set of 10 copies of The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman for your Reading Group by completing this survey by Wednesday 3 December.
Have you read The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman? You can share your thoughts on Twitter, or by posting a comment in the space below.
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