I have watched them pour what smells like lantern oil onto the road, but still the dust floats up so that it coats the inside of my nose and bothers my eyes. Automobiles, just like the one Old Man Ferguson back in Moose Factory drives, rush there at the same time every other day.

The road that leads up to it is covered in dust. Where it comes to rest is just a wooden platform with a small shelter to hide in when the weather turns. The rabbits, though, seem as afraid of this place as I am. Soon I will have only enough food left to get us home, and so I've taken to setting snares around my camp. I must look a thin and wild old woman to them, an Indian animal straight out of the bush. They stare and point and talk about me as if they've not seen one of me before. I hide well during the day, but when the sound of it reaches my ears I have no choice but to come out and walk among them. More wemistikoshiw than I want to see walk the dusty streets in their funny clothes, dressed as if for colder weather, though the sun above us is high and full of summer heat.

This is a town I have not been to before, a place to which I will never return. This is an ugly town, far bigger than Moose Factory, even. In part inspired by the legend of Francis Pegahmagabow, the great Indian sniper of World War I, Three-Day Road is an impeccably researched and beautifully written story that offers a searing reminder about the cost of war.įor many days I've hidden in the bush by the town, coming out when I hear the call, watching carefully for him. Intertwined with this account is the story of Niska, who herself has borne witness to a lifetime of death-the death of her people. Eventually the harrowing and bloody truth of war takes its toll on the two friends in different, profound ways. But while Xavier struggles to understand the purpose of the war and to come to terms with his conscience for the many lives he has ended, Elijah becomes obsessed with killing, taking great risks to become the most accomplished sniper in the army. Both become snipers renowned for their uncanny accuracy. Shipped off to Europe when they are nineteen, the boys are marginalized from the Canadian soldiers not only by their native appearance but also by the fine marksmanship that years of hunting in the bush has taught them. Set in Canada and the battlefields of France and Belgium, Three-Day Road is a mesmerizing novel told through the eyes of Niska-a Canadian Oji-Cree woman living off the land who is the last of a line of healers and diviners-and her nephew Xavier.Īt the urging of his friend Elijah, a Cree boy raised in reserve schools, Xavier joins the war effort.

3 day road joseph boyden