Booking through Thursday #4

What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”



Oh there are so many books that I have enjoyed so far in my life. Many authors - both popular and unpopular. And if I must pick just one that is not well known...I would pick The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy

Gabrielle Roy is a french-canadian author and The Tin Flute is her first novel. I was introduced to this piece of literature by pure accident. While watching TV one night I stumbled across a movie of the week and was curious. After watching this heartfelt drama, I knew I just had to see what the author really wanted to show her audience (we all know books are so much richer than movies). So off I went to the library and brought the book home. It was a book I couldn't put down. Her take on life in Quebec at the end of the depression and just as WWII was starting is hopeful, heart-breaking and true to life. You feel for each character and their hopes, dreams and obsessions.

The Tin Flute is a "good friend" I like to visit with from time to time and she graces my bookshelf with such classics as Pride and Prejudice and Gone with the Wind that I must keep for myself.

I enjoyed her so much that I took a French-Canadian literature course in University and studied more of Ms. Roy's books as well as a few other authors I might not have ever had the opportunity or inclination to read.

If anyone enjoys rich characters, and history, this may be a book that you would like to explore.