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the BOOK AND AUTHOR
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Children of the Day
by Sandra Birdsell
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Fiction •
Random House Canada •
Hardcover, 416 pages •
September 2005 •
$35.95 •
0-679-31369-9
ABOUT THE BOOK
In Children of the Day, the Giller-nominated
author Sandra Birdsell has created an indelible, life-affirming
portrait of a marriage on the knife-edge of disaster,
in the tiny mythical town of Union Plains, Manitoba.
She not only captures the unruly hearts of Sara and
Oliver Vandal, but also all the sticking points, strengths
and traumas of their Mennonite and Metis cultures.
Their meeting was a near-fatal accident, but from the moment that
Oliver Vandal, driving cab in Winnipeg, almost ran Sara Vogt down, the
lives of these unlikely lovers have been rudely, sometimes bruisingly,
sometimes gloriously, intertwined. Sara, a Mennonite immigrant stifled
by a bloody family history and the secrets and propriety of her
people, took one look at the darkly handsome Oliver and made a flying
leap into his arms. Through twenty years of marriage and ten children,
she has hung on for dear life, using her considerable willpower to
create a home that can harbour a dozen Vandals in a tiny house on the
outskirts of Union Plains.
back to top
Nobody's idea of a family man, Oliver has had to eke out a wage as the
manager of the down-at-the-heels local hotel, bootlegging on the side
to make ends meet. He is troubled by his own ghosts and longings, one
moment nostalgic for his Metis heritage and the next daydreaming of
finally proving himself to his childhood sweetheart, Alice Bouchard,
who lives a tantalizing ferry ride away in the French town across the
river. As Children of the Day opens, Sara and Oliver's marriage hangs
together on strategic silences and mutual incomprehension, and is
rescued most nights only by the fact that at least their bodies still
love each other.
Sandra Birdsell's emotionally charged and brilliantly observed novel
unfolds over the course of a single day in June 1953, when the whole
shaky structure of the Vandal family just might come crashing to an
end. That morning Sara refuses to come down to breakfast, chasing her
husband out of the house and leaving her children to fend for
themselves. If she and Oliver and their children are to safely
navigate the day, they'll need luck or divine intervention. They'll
also need Sara and Oliver to confront their marital lies, their true
desires and the tragic experiences that shaped them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
photo credit: Don Hall
Sandra Birdsell, among Canada's finest fiction writers,
was born in Manitoba and spent most of her life in Winnipeg.
Her most recent book is The Russländer,
the bestselling novel that was nominated for the Giller
Prize. It won the Saskatchewan Book Awards fiction prize
and its Book of the Year, and also the City of Regina
Book Award. The Missing Child won the
W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her second
novel, The Chrome Suite, and her most
recent collection of short stories, The Two-Headed
Calf, were shortlisted for the Governor General's
Literary Award. She now lives in Regina.
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