I had originally planned to use this month’s Friday Favourite to focus on a Russian favourite. But when I realized it fell on Canada Day, it seemed far more fitting to focus on a modern Canadian classic.
Joseph Boyden is one of the best Canadian writers currently in existence and his trilogy should be required reading for all Canadians. (And highly recommended for all non-Canadians.) His three novels – Three Day Road, Through Black Spruce, and The Orenda – are linked yet also work perfectly fine if read on their own. I read them in the above order, the order in which they were published, but that doesn’t really matter either. I personally think Three Day Road is the strongest but I know others (my dad, for one) who prefer The Orenda.
Three Day Road is set in the direct aftermath of World War One and follows the stories of two young Cree men, Elijah and Xavier. Split between the backwoods of Northern Ontario and the Western front, this is a very Canadian story. It’s about war, it’s about conflict between old and new ways of life, it’s about family, and it’s about many of the things that have made Canada country – for better or worse.
Previous Friday Favourites:
Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
Karissa Reads Books 
[…] Boyden is easily one of the best Canadian writers currently being published and I’m a big fan. His latest offering is much shorter than his three previous works – I read Wenjack in two […]