Children of the Day
A novel
Random House Canada, 2005
Their meeting was a near-fatal accident, but from the moment that Oliver Vandal, driving cab in Winnipeg, almost ran Sara Vogt down, the lives of these unlikely lovers have been sometimes rudely, sometimes gloriously intertwined. Sandra Birdsell’s emotionally charged and brilliantly observed novel unfolds over the course of a single day in June 1953, when Sara refuses to come down to breakfast, chasing her husband out of the house and leaving their children to fend for themselves. If she and her family are to safely navigate the day, they’ll need luck or divine intervention. They’ll also need Sara and Oliver to confront their marital lies, their true desires and the tragic experiences that shaped them.
Praise for Children of the Day
- “The reader is drawn on by sheer pleasure in the writing and an increasing connectedness to the Vandals. We must know what happens to these people. By the end, with all the major players gathered together in an extraordinary tragicomic climax, this reader for one was shouting from the sidelines.” — Quill and Quire (starred review)
- “There’s nary a false note in Children of the Day… of stories such as this was the history of the prairies woven, one family at a time. Skillful and satisfying.” — Montreal Gazette
- “Birdsell’s skill at tapping the mindset of Sara and Oliver and the various Vandal children is masterful… The uncanny, precise detailing of daily life highlights the tight seal of tension that clings to every moment…. Children of the Day contains a compelling, palpable loveliness. Birdsell’s strength as a storyteller is her ability to excavate hope from ruin.” — Toronto Star
- “An earthy, vivid portrait of a family coping with the messy business of life. It’s also a brilliant portrait of a country in the making.” — Time
- “By zeroing in on one couple, one family, one day, Birdsell is able to deal with decades of history and loss in a haunting portrait both human and geographical. A stunning portrait… the characters are brilliantly drawn and achingly real.” — The National Post
- “Utterly gripping… a historical novel that reminds us how the past, and especially the violent past, can never be repressed.” — The Globe and Mail
- “In this novel, Sandra Birdsell charts with a sure hand the lives of individuals struggling with both change and history on the plains of Manitoba. It is detailed and eloquent and deeply compassionate.” — Alistair MacLeod, author of No Great Mischief
- “With one family and in the course of a single day, Birdsell beautifully illuminates the age-old tensions between and within the Mennonites and the Metis of Manitoba. I love the defiant yet vulnerable voices of the Vandal girls, who are caught in the centre of their parents’ strife.”
— Miriam Toews, author of A Complicated Kindness - “Birdsell’s new novel is a wonderful book, a passionately intimate family drama that also cunningly, magically reflects the history of western Canada. Children of the Day is a remarkable achievement on both counts.” — Guy Vanderhaeghe, author of The Last Crossing
