“For the last ten years, you were a hair’s breadth from death. » The orthopedist from Granby pulls out all the stops with his 15-year-old patient; the fracture to the cervical vertebra suffered when he was playing as a child in his guardian’s yard could have killed him. Young Will Bill then realizes that he was living “like in a minefield”.
After three novels (Townships, Epic And Dixie) and a collection of short stories (Basketball and its fundamentals), William S. Messier ventures for the first time into the narrative of the self with The miracle, which recounts the moments when he could have lost his life: during a basketball game, in a car accident, in the family backyard. Originally from Cowansville and having grown up in Granby, the author delves into his memories and returns to the Eastern Townships to recount his adolescence in this “very ordinary” town. The carefreeness exuded by this era, so great in emotions and vivid in memories, is the strength of the stories, written with rhythmic sentences and a lively pen. “I almost died, without knowing it, for ten years. »
The miracle is a book about death, but above all a celebration of life in its small moments. “I am writing this book to remind myself why we must live as if every day is a victory. Why we write stories, we dance, we play basketball. […] We are on the verge of death every day. This is why we must live ostie as if every second was a victory. » A life lesson that we often hear. Still, he’s right.
The miracle
The Quartier
180 pages