Book For Whitevale Reads (June - September 2016)

The new book for Whitevale Reads has been chosen:

"And the Birds Rained Down" by Jocelyne Saucier

Summary from Canada Reads 2015:

“Deep in a Northern Ontario forest live Tom and Charlie, two octogenarians determined to live out the rest of their lives on their own terms: free of all ties and responsibilities, their only connection to civilization two pot farmers who bring them whatever they can't eke out for themselves. But their solitude is disrupted by the arrival of two women. The first is a photographer searching for survivors of a series of catastrophic fires nearly a century earlier; the second is an elderly escapee from a psychiatric institution. The little hideaway in the woods will never be the same.”

Did you know about the great fires of 1916 in Ontario? Neither did I. They are always in the background of this novel by the francophone writer Jocelyne Saucier. It is a really current issue in view of the present situation at Fort McMurray.

From Wikipedia:
“The great Matheson Fire was a deadly forest fire that passed through the region surrounding the communities of Black River-Matheson and Iroquois Falls, Ontario, Canada, on July 29, 1916.
As was common practice at the time, settlers cleared land using the slash and burn method. That summer, there was little rain and the forests and underbrush burned easily. In the days leading up to July 29, several smaller fires that had been purposely set merged into a single large firestorm. It was huge; at times its front measured 64 kilometres (40 mi) across. On that fateful day, the fire moved uncontrollably upon the towns of Porquis Junction, Iroquois Falls, Kelso, Nushka, Matheson, and Ramore - destroying them completely - while causing extensive damage to Homer and Monteith. A separate fire burned in and around Cochrane. In all, the fires burned an area of approximately 2,000 square kilometres (490,000 acres).
Because of forest fire smoke that had covered the region for several weeks and the absence of a forest fire monitoring service, there was almost no warning that the conflagration was upon the communities. Some people escaped on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (now the Ontario Northland Railway), while others were saved by wading into the nearby Black River or one of the small lakes in the area. 223 people were killed according to the official estimate.
The Matheson Fire led to the creation of the Forest Protection Branch of the Department of Lands, Forests and Mines (now known as the Ministry of Natural Resources) and the Forest Fires Prevention Act in Ontario.
The great fires are the subject of the books Killer in the Bush by Michael Barnes, and Il pleuvait des oiseaux by Jocelyne Saucier"

To know more about the Matheson fire:

http://www.iroquoisfallschamber.com/web-content/Pages/nushka.html

http://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/cmsimages/18/18f43b81-8062-45ba-a86c-10ed87b53683.pdf

To learn about Jocelyne and the writing of the novel:

http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/2015/02/jocelyne-saucier-how-i-wrote-and-the-birds-rained-down.html