Welcome to Global Montreal Morning News’ book club.
Every month, Camille Ross and Jess Laventure meet with Chapters’ Marketing Director, Matt Trahan, who introduces the latest book of the month.
Viewers are invited to read the book along with with the Montreal Morning News’ hosts, and share their thoughts, insights and opinions.
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This month’s book is The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow, a debut novel by author Rita Leganski.
It tells the story of a mute boy whose strange and marvellous gift of hearing reveals family secrets and forgotten voodoo lore, and exposes a murder that threatens the souls of those who love him.
Set against the backdrop of 1950s New Orleans, it weaves a magical story about the lost art of listening and a little boy who brings healing to all who love him.
From the back cover
Conceived in love and possibility, Bonaventure Arrow didn’t make a peep when he was born, and the doctor nearly took him for dead. No one knows that Bonaventure’s silence is filled with resonance—a miraculous gift of rarified hearing that encompasses the Universe of Every Single Sound. Growing up in the big house on Christopher Street in Bayou Cymbaline, Bonaventure can hear flowers grow, a thousand shades of blue, and the miniature tempests that rage inside raindrops. He can also hear the gentle voice of his father, William Arrow, shot dead before Bonaventure was born by a mysterious stranger known only as the Wanderer.
Bonaventure’s remarkable gift of listening promises salvation to the souls who love him: his beautiful young mother, Dancy, haunted by the death of her husband; his Grand-mère Letice, plagued by grief and a long-buried guilt she locks away in a chapel; and his father, William, whose roaming spirit must fix the wreckage of the past. With the help of Trinidad Prefontaine, a Creole housekeeper endowed with her own special gifts, Bonaventure will find the key to long-buried mysteries and soothe a chorus of family secrets clamouring to be healed.
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