Denis Thériault’s second novel is a sprightly tale about a young postman in Montreal named Bilodo. Withdrawn but not misanthropic, Bilodo spends his free time practicing his calligraphy, playing video games, and sitting in his habitual seat at the local café. But Bilodo has a secret: he’s fond of intercepting the personal mail he comes across as a letter carrier, carefully opening it, and reading its contents before delivering it to the intended recipients.
    In this way Bilodo discovers the beautiful Ségolène, a schoolteacher and poet who lives on an island in the French Caribbean. He pores over her letters, which usually consist of one carefully constructed haiku, and promptly falls in love with her. If Bilodo was once comfortable with his carefully cloistered life, his obsession with Ségolène is the catalyst for a major metamorphosis. Through a series of unlikely events, Bilodo finds himself in a position to carry on an epistolary relationship with his beloved.
    This is a short, easily digested, and often funny novel, one with enough information about the art of haiku to introduce the form to a novice. The humour of the book does not detract from its thematic concerns – fate, obsession, the power of language, and love. Amidst lyrical descriptions of both Montreal and Guadeloupe, as well as some lively storytelling, we are introduced to a small cast of deeply believable human beings. Those characters are sometimes troubled or stupid or cruel, but Thériault writes about them all with love. The Postman’s Round is a delightful and engrossing book.