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7/28/2019 Novel Synopses
1/4
Pairing A: The Stone Carvers and Three Day Road
Pairing B: Life of Pi and Haroun and the Sea of Stories
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
The novel follows three generations of a Canadian family,
starting with a woodcarver who befriends an immigrant German priest
as he founds a church in anisolated town in 19th century Ontario.
The story centres around the lives of thewood carver's two
grandchildren as it explores the devastation of World War I,the
building of the Vimy Memorial to commemorate the Canadian war dead
inFrance, and the human need to live, love, remember and
memorialise.
The main character in this story is Klara Becker and in many
ways this is thestory of the first world war from the perspective
of a woman who was left behind.
While it does not contain any graphic violence, it does contain
several scenes of sexuality.
Themes: Obsession, creation, memory, freedom vs captivity,
storytelling, love,
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7/28/2019 Novel Synopses
2/4
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
This novel follows the journey of two young Cree men, Xavier and
Elijah, whovolunteer for that war and become snipers during the
conflict.
Set in 1919, following the end of World War I, the novel takes
place in thewilderness of Northern Ontario and on the battlefields
of France and Belgium.Niska, an Oji-Cree medicine woman, is the
remnant of her native relatives whorefused to assimilate in the
19th century.
Niskas voice is one of two narratives that complete the novel.
After getting wordthat her closest thing to living family, Elijah,
is coming back from the war shepaddles the three-day journey to
meet him in town. She finds, however, that it isnot Elijah but her
nephew Xavier who has returned from battle. In an attempt toheal
her only relative, who has clearly been sucked dry of his soul and
hashardened with slaughter and turned hollow from morphine, she
begins to recount
the stories of her past.The novel was inspired in part by
real-life aboriginal World War I heroes FrancisPegahmagabow and
John Shiwak.
Contains scenes of graphic violence and sexuality.
Themes: Storytelling, brotherhood, tradition vs modernity, the
evil within, survival,clash between white culture and native
culture, spirituality, betrayal, violence
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7/28/2019 Novel Synopses
3/4
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel written by Yann Martel.
The protagonist
Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry,
explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age.
He survives 227 days after ashipwreck, while stranded on a boat in
the Pacific Ocean. Martel brought the ideaof rituals many times
throughout the novel as well as storytelling. Rituals givestructure
to abstract ideas and emotionsin other words, ritual is an
alternateform of storytelling. It was rituals and storytelling that
kept Pi Patel sane.
Contains some scenes of violence.
Themes: Faith vs rationality, survival, storytelling,
violence,
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7/28/2019 Novel Synopses
4/4
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
While technically a "children's story" Haroun and the Sea of
Stories is an allegory
for several problems existing in society today, especially in
India and the Indiansubcontinent. It looks at these problems from
the viewpoint of the youngprotagonist Haroun. It is also
interesting to note that Rushdie dedicated this bookto his son,
Rushdie, from whom he was separated for some time. The style of
this novel can be described as "magic realism" where which magical
elementsare blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access
a deeper understanding of reality. These magical elements are
explained like normaloccurrences that are presented in a
straightforward manner which allows the"real" and the "fantastic"
to be accepted in the same stream of thought.
Themes: storytelling, importance of language, freedom of speech,
democracy vs
dictatorship, balance between light and dark, heroism
