Three Day Road

“Beau­ti­ful” is not a word I nor­mally use when describ­ing a war novel, but in this case it fits. Three Day Road is the story of two cousins, raised as close as broth­ers, who go off to World War I together. As mem­bers of the Cree tribe, the cousins expe­ri­ence a dual cul­ture clash. They also endure a cer­tain amount of dis­crim­i­na­tion at first. But both are excel­lent marks­men, and the more out­go­ing, worldly-wise of the two becomes well known as a war hero.

I won’t give away the punch­line, but the main plot of this story is one cousin’s descent into mad­ness and the other’s painful dis­cov­ery and choices. Author Joseph Boy­den has man­aged to com­bine incal­cu­la­ble sor­row with hope and heal­ing. The aunt who raised the boys con­tributes her own narration.

I found this book a few years ago on the sale table at a mall book­store where my hus­band and I had stopped to pass the time because our son’s leave flight from a mil­i­tary assign­ment over­seas had been delayed. I did not let myself read it until months later when he was safely back for good. War is a nasty fact of life. Books like Three Day Road help us find redemption.

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