Pairing A: The Stone Carvers and Three Day Road Pairing B: Life of Pi and Haroun and the Sea

of Stories
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart The novel follows three generations of a Canadian family, starting with a wood carver who befriends an immigrant German priest as he founds a church in an isolated town in 19th century Ontario. The story centres around the lives of the wood carver's two grandchildren as it explores the devastation of World War I, the building of the Vimy Memorial to commemorate the Canadian war dead in France, and the human need to live, love, remember and memorialise. The main character in this story is Klara Becker and in many ways this is the story of the first world war from the perspective of a woman who was left behind. While it does not contain any graphic violence, it does contain several scenes of sexuality. Themes: Obsession, creation, memory, freedom vs captivity, storytelling, love,

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden This novel follows the journey of two young Cree men, Xavier and Elijah, who volunteer for that war and become snipers during the conflict. Set in 1919, following the end of World War I, the novel takes place in the wilderness of Northern Ontario and on the battlefields of France and Belgium. Niska, an Oji-Cree medicine woman, is the remnant of her native relatives who refused to assimilate in the 19th century. Niskas voice is one of two narratives that complete the novel. After getting word that her closest thing to living family, Elijah, is coming back from the war she paddles the three-day journey to meet him in town. She finds, however, that it is not Elijah but her nephew Xavier who has returned from battle. In an attempt to heal her only relative, who has clearly been sucked dry of his soul and has hardened with slaughter and turned hollow from morphine, she begins to recount the stories of her past. The novel was inspired in part by real-life aboriginal World War I heroes Francis Pegahmagabow and John Shiwak. Contains scenes of graphic violence and sexuality. Themes: Storytelling, brotherhood, tradition vs modernity, the evil within, survival, clash between white culture and native culture, spirituality, betrayal, violence

Life of Pi by Yann Martel Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel written by Yann Martel. The protagonist Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck, while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean. Martel brought the idea of rituals many times throughout the novel as well as storytelling. Rituals give structure to abstract ideas and emotionsin other words, ritual is an alternate form of storytelling. It was rituals and storytelling that kept Pi Patel sane. Contains some scenes of violence. Themes: Faith vs rationality, survival, storytelling, violence,

Haroun and the Sea of Stories While technically a "children's story" Haroun and the Sea of Stories is an allegory for several problems existing in society today, especially in India and the Indian subcontinent. It looks at these problems from the viewpoint of the young protagonist Haroun. It is also interesting to note that Rushdie dedicated this book to his son, Rushdie, from whom he was separated for some time. The style of this novel can be described as "magic realism" where which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. These magical elements are explained like normal occurrences that are presented in a straightforward manner which allows the "real" and the "fantastic" to be accepted in the same stream of thought. Themes: storytelling, importance of language, freedom of speech, democracy vs dictatorship, balance between light and dark, heroism