Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather: Pierre Szalowski’s Tender Novel of an Ice Storm and a Boy’s Wish
Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather is a story about happiness: a moving tale full of tenderness and optimism about an eleven-year-old boy who learns that his parents want to separate. It is a metaphor for modern life, a life we often live too fast, too wrapped up in our own problems to look at the people we pass.
Author: Pierre Szalowski
Title: Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather (Le froid modifie la trajectoire des poissons, 2007)
Format: English paperback (Canongate), 272 pages
Scope: Novel set in Montreal during the great ice storm of 1998
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/085786162X (ASIN 085786162X)
Paying Attention
A life we live without paying attention. And attention is essential to discover the opportunities that pass in front of our eyes every day.
The Ice Storm
An unexpected ice storm changes the boy’s life, and the lives of his neighbours, and even the behaviour of some very special fish. The storm cuts power and throws people who barely knew each other together.
The Great Ice Storm of 1998
The novel is set during a real disaster. In January 1998, several days of freezing rain coated southern Quebec, eastern Ontario and parts of the north-eastern United States in thick ice. Trees and power pylons collapsed under the weight, and millions of people lost electricity, some of them for weeks, in the depths of a Canadian winter. Montreal was badly hit, and the army was called in to help. Many people still remember the crisis for the way it brought neighbours together, which is exactly the spirit of the book.
A Boy’s Wish
The story begins with a boy who, having just heard that his parents are going to separate, asks the sky for a miracle that will keep them together. The next day, the freezing rain begins. In the darkened apartment block, he and his parents are drawn into the lives of neighbours they had barely noticed: people who are lonely, eccentric or struggling with their own problems. The fish of the title belong to one of them, and their strange behaviour in the cold becomes the novel’s playful central image.
The Author
Pierre Szalowski was born in Paris in 1959 to a family of Polish origin. Before turning to fiction he worked as a press photographer, journalist, advertising executive and software designer, and in 1997 he moved to Quebec to help build the Montreal studio of the video-game company Ubisoft, where he became a vice-president. He turned to screenwriting in 2003, and this, his first novel, was published in French in 2007 and became a word-of-mouth success.
Who Will Enjoy It
Readers who like gentle, humorous, life-affirming novels with a touch of fable: a book to read on a winter evening. It is short and warm, and its message, that disasters can make us notice one another, feels especially welcome today.
The Original Review
The original review read the book as a lesson in paying attention: to the people next door, to chance encounters and to the small events that change the course of a life. Szalowski makes that message entertaining rather than preachy, through comedy and a child’s-eye view of the adult world, and the novel’s interlocking stories come together in an ending that is both improbable and deeply satisfying.
Note
The English translation keeps the book’s light touch.
Tip
Ideal for winter.
Small Things
The book is precisely about that: how chance, unexpected encounters and the small things of everyday life change... the direction of the fish. It is a warm, funny and hopeful novel, perfect for readers who enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
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