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Three Day Road

4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 · rating details · 5,308 ratings · 581 reviews

The National Bestseller
Shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award
One of The Globe and Mail One Hundred Best Books of 2004

Inspired in part by real-life World War I Ojibwa hero Francis Pegahmagabow, this unblinking, impeccably researched novel is the astonishing story of two Cree snipers in the killing fields of Ypres and the Somme, and the winding journey home...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published March 10th 2006 by Penguin Canada (first published May 5th 2005)

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Mar 12, 2009 Bonnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: recommended, reviewed-books, historical-fiction, canadian-author

5 stars

I'm not sure I've read any other books inspired by the First World War, but I am sure Joseph's story is different than anything else ever written.

Agreed, I was slow to get TO it (heard him read first chapter in Whistler 2007), and to really get into it, but oh -- when I did, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!

I read this, for the most part, on the beach while vacationing in Mexico. I couldn't help but react out loud: his battle scenes, e.g., are so vivid, chilling. But saying that sim...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Malcolm rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone

Book Review: Three Day Road
Joseph Boyden
Viking Canada Penguin 2005
ISBN 0-670-06362-2
Once in a long while one reads a book that you cannot put down and the overall beauty of it leaves one gasping. Three Day Road, is such a book. It tells the story of Two Cree young men who find themselves in WW I fighting in the trenches of France as snipers using their hunting and shooting skills they learned in the bush growing up near James Bay.

The story begins with the protagonist, Xavier Bird, has retur...more Book Review: Three Day Road
Joseph Boyden
Viking Canada Penguin 2005
ISBN 0-670-06362-2
Once in a long while one reads a book that you cannot put down and the overall beauty of it leaves one gasping. Three Day Road, is such a book. It tells the story of Two Cree young men who find themselves in WW I fighting in the trenches of France as snipers using their hunting and shooting skills they learned in the bush growing up near James Bay.

The story begins with the protagonist, Xavier Bird, has returned from the war minus his leg and addicted to morphine. Aunt Niska, Xavier’s only living relative has paddled five days against the river current to bring him home. Niska is a Cree woman who has lived in traditional ways alone in the bush much of her life except for a brief stay in a residential school as a child. The story takes place during their three day return to James Bay. Flashbacks to the battlefields of France, vividly told, and to each of their childhoods occur during times when Xavier is asleep, or drugged by the morphine that controls the phantom pain in his leg. We learn Xavier is on borrowed time as his morphine cache is nearly gone. The title Three Day Road has a truly layered meaning in the story.

We learn a lot about the traditional native way of life as well as the isolation natives must endure in the world of the wemistikoshiw (the Cree word for white man).
We gain a certain insight into a residential school where Cree children are taken from their homes and fat Nuns abuse little boys and punish them severely if they speak in native tongues.

The historically accurate description of life in the trenches in France is excellent – on par with the likes of Pierre Berton’s Vimy.

Boyden’s descriptive and narrative skill is terrific and a lot is included in the books 350 pages. The book is a Writers Trust Award winner and one can easily see why.

I give it five stars (but would give six if I could)

Malcolm Watts BA MSW
Novelist Reflections from Shadow
www.authorsden.com/malcolmwatts
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Sep 02, 2008 Ruzz rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone who can read.

Shelves: 2008

I found Three Day Road when a notoriously late friend was more than an hour late to meet me and I had time to browse a local bookstore. I didn't pick the book up that day, but i noted it.

Later, while near the bookstore I went back in and grabbed it. The idea of the book crossed a number of vectors of interest for me. War history (wait, don't stop reading yet), snipers (please, keep reading), and early 20th century Natives.

I expected it to at least titillate my love of snipers, and war and the...more

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Jul 20, 2009 Capitu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Capitu by: book club pick by Georgina

Shelves: 2007, canadian, re-reads, book-club, 2009

I love this book. It is definitely in the pack of books I would carry with me from a burning building. I read it 2 years ago or so, and recently browsed through it again for a book club discussion. I feel surprised with myself that a book with so many graphic descriptions of battles and death does not however make me put it on the list of books never to reread. For all the sadness and destruction it describes, still it does not leave me downhearted. I guess I see the characters' struggles as an...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Katalin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was not an easy read... Mostly it is my fault. I do not like wars, I do not agree with them, I feel wars are pictured to be glamorous so all those poor souls who are tricked or forced into participating could feel good about themselves and wouldn't have to feel fooled. And I somehow read too many war related books recently, so to me, the parts of this story describing the details of the war were not interesting, but I can see how they must be for others..

I did enjoy everything about the Cre...more This was not an easy read... Mostly it is my fault. I do not like wars, I do not agree with them, I feel wars are pictured to be glamorous so all those poor souls who are tricked or forced into participating could feel good about themselves and wouldn't have to feel fooled. And I somehow read too many war related books recently, so to me, the parts of this story describing the details of the war were not interesting, but I can see how they must be for others..

I did enjoy everything about the Cree Indians, their customs, the memories of Niska and Xavier. I could not have enough of them, but unfortunately the parts about the war were more dominant.

It was a difficult read, because not only am I against war I am also against Christianity forsing itself on beautiful, rich cultures such as the Cree.. It makes me start pulling my hair out to read about the incredible cruelty of the nuns or ordinary people against the Indians. I hate that cockish attitude of superiority Christians have demonstrated towards other religions over history. Especially towards such ancient and rich cultures as for example the Cree Indians... So I cannot in my right mind understand why on earth would these Cree Indians join the Great War! And honestly other than hoping or thinking it would be the same as being great hunters or becoming better hunters I still don't know why they signed up.

The book beautifully demonstrates how devastating the experiences in the war are to the human soul, how utterly non-glamorous the war is... It is really painful you read it. I loved the complex friendship between Xavier and Ellijah and the bond between Niska and Xavier... I also liked how deep these relationships are regardless of what happens to them, and how little words are really needed. I like that because l often feel there is too much noise in the world and people should just really be quiter. On the other hand, when words are used, they are used to heal, in the form of stories, because stories have healing powers and I guess we all know that.

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Feb 06, 2012 Toni rated it 4 of 5 stars

I learned much from this book. I learned about trench warfare, the primary method of fighting in World War One. I learned about the Native American bush Indians of Canada and the hardships and racism that they survived. I learned that the white americans admired their hunting and tracking skills and transformed these individuals from hunters of animals into hunters of men during the war and the toll on their spirit that this transformation wrought.
I learned that every war through history has cre...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Julie by: Charisse

Shelves: canada-theme-setting, historical-fiction, war-conflict, best-of-2011, european-setting-multiple-countries, read-2011

Xavier Bird, a young Ojibwa from the Moose Cree tribe in northern Ontario, returns to Canada from the Europe's Western Front in the summer of 1919. He is alone, in unimaginable pain from an amputated leg, addicted to morphine, and dying from a spirit broken by the nightmare of war.

Carrying him home in her dugout canoe is his aunt Niska, an elderly medicine woman who has lived on her own in the bush since escaping a Catholic boarding school in her teens. Through a twisting, dreamlike journey of...more Xavier Bird, a young Ojibwa from the Moose Cree tribe in northern Ontario, returns to Canada from the Europe's Western Front in the summer of 1919. He is alone, in unimaginable pain from an amputated leg, addicted to morphine, and dying from a spirit broken by the nightmare of war.

Carrying him home in her dugout canoe is his aunt Niska, an elderly medicine woman who has lived on her own in the bush since escaping a Catholic boarding school in her teens. Through a twisting, dreamlike journey of words and images we follow Xavier and Niska on a three-day river trail home. The journey takes us through the years of these characters' lives. To distract Xavier from his pain and to quell her own anxiety over his addiction and the emotional wounds that she cannot heal, Niska recounts her childhood as European settlers closed in on her tribe's ancestral territories. She reveals how she survived and thrived on her own, fell in love with a French trapper, learned to use her healing and divining powers, and how she saved Xavier from subjugation at the hands, whips and rum of the white settlers.

Xavier crossed the Atlantic as a Canadian Army private with his best friend, Elijah Weesageechak ("Whiskeyjack" to non-Cree speakers). Elijah had spent his early years at a Catholic boarding school and is fluent in English, but ignorant of his tribe's hunting, tracking and survival skills. He is reclaimed by the Cree forest and comes of age with Niska and Xavier. Xavier is a patient teacher and Elijah a crack student. By the time the young men arrive in Europe, their marksmanship skills are renowned. They are selected to train with an elite group of snipers. Xavier is soon overshadowed by Elijah's charisma and ego but the two remain a team during their nearly two years on the battlefields of France and Belgium. Why Xavier returns to his homeland alone becomes the thread of tension that reverberates keenly to the final pages.

This is a beautifully written yet brutal novel. Each modern war has its unique horrors. Three Day Road mires the reader in the muck of World War I trench warfare as bodies pile in corners, lice pulse in clothing seams, and toes rot black with trench foot. Boyden spares no detail of hand-to-hand combat, of the blood-lust that becomes the sole means of emotional survival for some soldiers, of the ache for the relief of morphine. The devastation is so relentless, you understand any soldier's break with reason, you feel their uncontrollable rage and their sense of hopelessness as they accept that each moment may be their last.

It is Boyden's storytelling ability and his skills in pacing and tension that keep the gore from overwhelming the narrative. The characters who ripple through bring life and dimension to the battlefields, farmland, forest and hearths of Europe and Canada. This is historical fiction at its finest: a scholar's command of factual detail balanced by a storyteller's heart and passion. Niska provides us with historical context, telling the story of northern First Nations in the early part of the 20th century. Xavier's story is eternal lesson that nothing good comes of war, a lesson we seemed destined to repeat and fail at least once each generation.

I'm glad I waited a few more days to compile my Best Reads of 2011 list. Three Day Road will surely appear in the top ten.

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Jan 09, 2008 Jackie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I first heard about this book a couple years ago on the Today show. At first it was hard to take a Today show book club selection seriously, but then I decided to listen to what the star author had to say about the book. Isabel Allende introduced Three Day Road, and her enthusiasm for the story really intrigued me. She writes in a completely different genre (magical realism) from what she decribed this book to be (WWI historical fiction), so I thought I should give it a shot. And I decided to wa...more

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Oct 30, 2007 minnie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

A friend recommended this book and lent me her copy.If I had seen it in a bookshop I would never have picked it up because the cover and typeface(on my edition)suggests a romantic novel.The story follows Niska a cree medicine woman who lives in the Bush,bringing her injured morphine addicted nephew back home after world war I.This book I found very moving and horrific in its descriptions of the trenches and the young men who went to war and came back ghosts of their former selves.The description...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Joyce Lagow rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

War is ugly and always has been; people die and usually gruesomely. But there seems to be a general consensus that the most horror-filled war was The Great War, The War to End All Wars--World War I. Not before or since have armies been mired down in trenches, where it was possible to die from drowning in mud, never mind from bullets or artillery. Being static--unable to move, to have at least the illusion of dodging incoming artillery--did something to the psyches of the soldiers who fought in t...more War is ugly and always has been; people die and usually gruesomely. But there seems to be a general consensus that the most horror-filled war was The Great War, The War to End All Wars--World War I. Not before or since have armies been mired down in trenches, where it was possible to die from drowning in mud, never mind from bullets or artillery. Being static--unable to move, to have at least the illusion of dodging incoming artillery--did something to the psyches of the soldiers who fought in that war that wasn� t seen until Vietnam, and for different reasons.[return][return]Two young Crees from northern Ontario enlist in the Canadian army and become part of the Southern Ontario Rifles, an outfit, that although fictional, mirrors the courage and horror of the Canadian participation in the war. In addition, being First Nation (as indigienous people are known in Canada), Xavier Bird and his best friend, Elijah Whiskeyjack, have additional challenges. Each was marked by the events in which they participated.[return][return]But this is far more than a war story with an interesting twist. It is also the story of the Crees in the early 20th century, especially those who were � bush Indians� , refusing to accommodate to the white ways and living the traditional Cree way. And that we learn from Niska, a medicine woman, who leaves her home in the wilderness in her canoe to bring back her nephew Xavier, who has survived the war--but as a broken man addicted to opium. The story unfolds during the journey back to the wilderness.[return][return]Throughout is the theme of the windigo, a creature of evil that can spread like an infection. Niska� s father and Niska herself are windigo killers, those recognized by the tribes as having the power, which is a gift, of ridding the tribe of these humans turned into monsters. Windigos are made, not born, and therein lies a tale.[return][return]It is a remarkable story, profound. It is told in a circular fashion, through flashbacks that are not linear--to the days when Xavier and Eilijah were hunters as boys, to the war to Niska� s childhood to the present. The prose is spare, dispassionate, but the impact is searing.[return][return]This is a debut novel for Boyden, and an extremely powerful one. Highly recommended.(less)

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Apr 03, 2009 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, ojibwe_country

This is an exceptional book, although harrowing - I'm not sure I could say I enjoyed it; my feeling is closer to respect, and admiration, for what the author achieved.

Three Day Road is the story of two young Cree men who volunteer for service in WWI. Only one returns - Xavier - and the novel follows his progress as he travels back downriver, with his aunt, to his home. He's broken, physically and mentally, by the war, is addicted to morphine, and as he slips back into the past and relates the st...more

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May 11, 2013 Jackie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: gory

I was leant this book by two friends who both said it was the best book they'd read in a long time. It was a very good book in many ways. The writing was nice, easy to read, generally good prose though a few lines here and there felt cliche/contrived, but the book is so long it's not surprising... I don't know enough about the details of the main subjects--war/trench fighting, morphine addiction, and the First Nations people of Canada--to say whether or not they were accurate, but the descriptio...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Jacob Kirby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Book Review For Three Day Road Author Joseph Boyden

Over all this is a truly a very well written book. This book has many different elements to it. At times it’s a drama or at other times it’s an action packed suspenseful war based book. The book is about the Cree native people from northern Ontario being involved fighting in World War I. The books main characters are Elijah and Xavier. They are both Cree from the Hudson’s Bay area. They are faced with many different challenges from drug abuse,...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Shelly Sanders rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another war story. That's what I thought when my book club chose Three Day Road. Luckily, I was wrong. Yes, the novel takes place during WWI, and yes, there are plenty of battle scenes, blood, and gore. But the characters,aboriginal Canadians, bring this time and place to life and offer a completely different view of the war. By the end, I was in awe of the aboriginal boys' contribution to the war and, at the same time, disheartened by their experiences.

Told through stories from Niska, an Oji-C...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Marc rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a bit slow starting due to the way Boyden crafted this story. There are at least two different narrator's voices, actually more when you consider that each narrator speaks in the present and in the past. To me the characters also lacked truly distinctive voices that would have helped the reader to quickly figure out who the narrator was for the section/chapter. So it was a bit confusing until you figured out who was speaking at each chapter. Once you knew eno...more

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Sep 11, 2012 John Johnston rated it 5 of 5 stars

I would like to start out by saying that this novel is one of may all-time favorites and i have recommanded to many people that have also enjoyed it.

Three Day Road is gripping novel from Canadian author Joseph Boyden, is the story of war, sanity and humanity. The narritive forced me to question what makes one human and at what point we can no longer maintain grip on our humanity. There can be a fine line between control and madness and all of Boyden’s primary characters tiptoe this line at times...more I would like to start out by saying that this novel is one of may all-time favorites and i have recommanded to many people that have also enjoyed it.

Three Day Road is gripping novel from Canadian author Joseph Boyden, is the story of war, sanity and humanity. The narritive forced me to question what makes one human and at what point we can no longer maintain grip on our humanity. There can be a fine line between control and madness and all of Boyden’s primary characters tiptoe this line at times; slipping into either side.

Three Day Road follows the life of two Cree friends, Xavier and Elijah, as well as Xavier’s aunt, Niska. The novel begins as Niska meets her nephew as he is delivered by train following his tour of duty in WWI. She aims to return him to his home by means of canoe, a route that takes three days. During this trip, Xavier is forced to face his demons and recover from a powerful morphine addiction worsened by the horrors of war that haunt him. His aunt offers him stories of her life throughout his struggle, believing that there is “medicine in the tale.” Xavier’s tale of war is told through flashbacks and memories. I felt like I was there in that canoe with them listening to this horrific tale and trying to catch the breeze off the water to keep away the balck flies.

Niska is a woman bound by tradition, unwilling to assimilate into the world of the future, she segregates herself from others so as to retain what she believes, not willing to let go of her strong native culture. Xavier is her loyal nephew, a true hunter. A quiet, solemn soul, he has learned all he knows from Niska. He is thrust into the world of war and is left groping for footing in a land of mud, blood and death. Elijah is Xavier’s best friend. A boisterous, vibrant young man, Elijah is violently competitive, seeking validation in his ability to power over others. He wants deeply to be a part of the modern world of the ‘wemistikoshiw’, the ‘white man’; to prove himself a fighter.

Boyden is a born storyteller, his talent for description and his ability to bring vibrant life to his characters is instantly evident. He puts you in that WW1 trench where you can feel the fear of war and that cold wet damp that nevers leaves you - a powerful story!

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Aug 03, 2012 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read Boydens "Through Black Spruce" before I read this book and I loved it so my expectations were high. Well, if anything my expectations were surpassed. I love being placed into the mind of someone that comes from an entirely different culture (and in this case, period), but it is a rare privilege to encounter writing and character development of such quality that I feel literally transported by the experience of reading. Boydens has done this with both of his works. As I have said in my rev...more I read Boydens "Through Black Spruce" before I read this book and I loved it so my expectations were high. Well, if anything my expectations were surpassed. I love being placed into the mind of someone that comes from an entirely different culture (and in this case, period), but it is a rare privilege to encounter writing and character development of such quality that I feel literally transported by the experience of reading. Boydens has done this with both of his works. As I have said in my review of Through Black Spruce, it probably helps that I've been to Moose Factory and have worked with the Cree people, and so I have an affinity and respect for this culture. Through Boydens characters, I feel that I know a little better what it is to be Ontario Cree. Likewise, his depiction of WWI from a first person perspective is extremely compelling and, I believe, as realistic as one could ask for. The three main characters-- Xavier, Elijah, and Niska-- are all deeply drawn and sympathetic. Each has a compelling story that is told in retrospect using a dual first person narrative through the memories of Niska and her nephew Xavier as they travel together downriver by canoe from Toronto to Moose Factory. Xavier has returned home from Europe, where he fought as a sniper alongside Elijah in the trenches of World War One. He is a broken young man, mortally wounded in body and mind, addicted to morphine, and lost to himself (heavily symbolived by the fact that he was mistakenly sent home with Elijah's identification tags). Niska attempts to heal him spiritually as they journey homeward by telling him stories of her life, and of Xavier and Elijah's lives. There is a central tension that never lets up, driven by the question of what really happened to the childhood friends in the crucible of war, and equally driven by how much we come to care for these characters. The story is also propelled by the constant insight it provides into the experiences and various aspects of life that would otherwise remain intangible and unknowable to me: traditional "bush living" by older generations of Cree, how the fur trade and white culture impacted the current generation of Cree people, the idea of spiritual sickness and the myth/reality of the windigo, the sounds, sights, and daily existence of life in the trenches during the Great War, what it was like to be a highly skilled sniper on the battlefield, and much more. I loved this book from start to finish.(less)

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Mar 19, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have an utter fascination, or should it be horror, with WWI. The manner in which men were sent to the slaughter in the face of machine gun fire, the terrible conditions the men endured and the constant bombardment of artillery they faced piques that part of the brain which astounds at such abomination.

This book for some reason never really evoked in me the sense of that horror. It had all the gruesome details of the war, but I felt like Boyden was holding back somewhat. It felt to me like he n...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Charra Rede rated it 3 of 5 stars

Three stories intertwine in this work of historically-based fiction. Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskeyjack, both Oji-Cree boys, leave their home in the bush of Northern Ontario and become sharpshooters in the Great War. Returning maimed and alone in 1919, Xavier is met by his aunt Niska who paddles him home in her canoe. As they travel upriver, he relives his grimly heroic story through flashbacks, while his aunt Niska relates to him the story of her life and of his. By reminding Xavier of his true...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Joanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

As I read through the posted reviews of this book I came across the following one written by, "Lisa". I share it with my followers:

Xavier Bird is a haunted man. Sick in body and soul, he is coming home to Canada to die. He is returning from the WWI battlefields of Ypres and the Somme, and, although he enlisted with his best friend, Elijah, he is coming home alone. Xavier is met at the train station in Northern Ontario by his Auntie Niska, a Oji-Cree medicine woman who raised Elijah and him. Toge...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Wanda Gibbons rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mark's review says it all so I added it here. But I enjoyed this book because it was a Canadian story, Boyden created such rich and vivid images that I was there every moment (what a wonder writer) and I learned so much about WW1. I had no idea about how close the fighting men were to each other, that life in the tenches really was "in the tenches" or that death was so up close and personal. This was a real WW1 education for me that I will not be forgetting and for this I thank Boyden. An amazin...more Mark's review says it all so I added it here. But I enjoyed this book because it was a Canadian story, Boyden created such rich and vivid images that I was there every moment (what a wonder writer) and I learned so much about WW1. I had no idea about how close the fighting men were to each other, that life in the tenches really was "in the tenches" or that death was so up close and personal. This was a real WW1 education for me that I will not be forgetting and for this I thank Boyden. An amazing story of death, renewal and life created by the voices that tell the story.

Joseph Boyden's first novel is the story of two Cree friends, Xavier and Elijah, who leave their pristine northern country to end up in the horrific trenches of World War I. Loosely based on the real life of a famous Canadian sniper, the story is told from two first-person views: those of Xavier and his old aunt and only living relative, Niska. After the war, Niska is taking her wounded nephew back home north to the bush in a canoe. Their trip is the three-day road of the title, which also refers to the journey taken after death. The story of the war is told in flashbacks on this journey as Xavier recovers from morphine addiction. Niska also relates various stories to Xavier, believing there is "medicine in the tale."
Boyden is a natural storyteller. Both the Native tales of the north and the grim accounts of the war in France and Belgium have the ring of truth. His images can be subtly appropriate--raiders who go over the top are "eaten by the night"--and his characterizations are excellent, especially the three main players and Xavier's Canadian trenchmates. Eventually, Elijah seems to feed on the death all around him, becoming a "windigo," while Xavier begins to question the sanity of the war and his friend's growing madness, realizing "we all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy." Not for the squeamish reader, this is a powerful novel that takes a new angle on a popular subject, "the war to end all wars." --Mark Frutkin(less)

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Aug 30, 2011 Gem rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read2011, adultfiction, canadiana

It’s hard to say that I really “enjoyed” this novel, because a lot of it is quite dark and depressing. Although the story alternates between Xavier and Niska, a good 85% of the book takes place on the warfront. Boyden’s descriptions of being in the war are horrific, especially Elijah’s downward spiral; he really pulls the reader into the war without making it about the action or the weapons or any of the other glamorized parts of war.

Interestingly enough, this novel is inspired by a true story o...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Darryl Mexic rated it 3 of 5 stars

“Three Day Road”, by Joseph Boyden is a story about Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskeyjack, two Cree native north Americans from upper parts of Ontario province, and their misshapen lives during World War I. Xavier was brought up by his aunt as a bush Indian, living off the land, away from civilization, except for a brief stint in a Toronto school run by nuns. Elijah spent many years in such a school and was fluent in English and much better understood the ways of the white man. Elijah eventually r...more

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Jan 08, 2011 Larry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Joseph Boyden portrays the harsh realities of both the WWI trench warfare experience and the everyday lives of the Cree in northern Ontario during the same period.

There Day Road chronicles the lives of two Cree boys who join the army and are subsequently thrown into the horrors of the war. Being raised in the bush and both excellent marksmen, they become snipers – with Xavier being more ambivalent about killing people, while his friend Elijah adapts enthusiastically. Trying to cope with the war,...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Naomi rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found myself struck by Boyden's repetition of words, particularly the colour red. Indeed, I kept mentally comparing it to my (admittedly rather hazy, as I read it in the first year of my undergrad) recollection of Timothy Findley's The Wars. This comparison was fostered by both texts' complicated relationship with horses, and in what I would argue are similar ways. Findley's descriptions of red are multifoliate, using a wide range of Anglo-specific terms for the different reds of the battlefie...more

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Dec 12, 2010 Mrsgaskell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 9-star, canadiana, library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 14, 2010 Leila rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

An astonishing book. Powerful, beautiful and compelling, this is a harrowing tale of almost relentless emotional horror and hardship sprinkled with delicate scenes of heartbreaking beauty. It would be hard to say that I 'enjoyed' this book, but I truly was utterly absorbed by it. In an intense three-day obsession I read it on the bus (missing my stop), at work (extending my lunch break) and curled in a corner at home. Even in public I was unable to hide my frequent tears.

Boyden's writing is as...more

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Mar 05, 2010 Quinten rated it 4 of 5 stars

Xavier en Elijah, twee indiaanse vrienden, worden uitgezonden naar Europa, waar de Eerste Wereldoorlog woedt. Ze zijn jong en argeloos. Elijah raakt geobsedeerd door het spel van dood en verderf; al snel wordt hij de meest gevreesde sluipschutter van het bataljon. Zijn faam maakt hem een held in de ogen van zijn medesoldaten. Xavier worstelt juist met de verschrikkingen van de oorlog en de vele doden die hij op zijn geweten heeft. Als Elijahs moed omslaat in wreedheid en waanzin, beseft Xavier d...more

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Oct 25, 2009 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Three Day Road is a very heavy read. It is about two Cree Soldiers in the Canadian military during World War I, the descent into madness by one, and the power of love from an Auntie who saves the other.

This is Boyden's debut novel and is a compelling read that successfully weaves the past, present and the storylines of Xavier with Elijah during the war, and with Xavier and Niska, his Aunt, in the "present." I found I needed to be in the right frame of mind to read it, and I definately did not r...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Shirley Schwartz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-5-star-reads

This book is so powerful and gripping and so very real that it is difficult to read it. Boyden takes us right into the French and Belgian trenches during the First World War. We are there and we experience the fear and the agony of this terrible war. The story is really about two young Indian boys who are friends and who enlist and go to the War together. The war changes these young Canadian boys. One (Elijah) becomes a warrior and goes hunting at night. The more Germans that he kills the darker...more

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About Joseph Boyden

Joseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist and short story writer.

He grew up in Willowdale, North York, Ontario and attended the Jesuit-run Brebeuf College School. Boyden's father Raymond Wilfrid Boyden was a medical officer renowned for his bravery, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and was the highest-decorated medical officer of World War II.

Boyden, of Irish, Scottish and Métis heritage...more

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Books by Joseph Boyden

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont: A Penguin Lives Biography

From Mushkegowuk To New Orleans: A Mixed Blood Highway

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Quotes from Three Day Road

“This memory, this pretty little stone, I examine it with my eyes closed tight. Turn it over in my fingers.” — 3 people liked it

“In school, it got so that Elijah learned to talk his way out of anything, gave great long speeches so that his words snaked themselves like vines around the nuns until they could no longer move, [...].” — 2 people liked it

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