Old Man Savarin, and Other Stories

The opening tale introduces Old Man Savarin, a notorious rascal who exploits the fishermen of a small village along the Ottawa River. Through the voice of a young storyteller recounting local lore, we witness Savarin's schemes against the Laroque family and other villagers, his greed, his bullying, his relentless hunger for power over working people who depend on the river. But as the oral tradition demands, his misdeeds gather force like a storm on the water, and his comeuppance arrives with the satisfying inevitability of folklore. Thomson layers the narrative with the rich dialect and customs of French-Canadian river communities, creating a world where storytelling itself is a form of resistance and memory. The tales that follow continue this tradition of local color and moral weight, rendering a vanished world with warmth, humor, and sharp social insight.