TALI NOHKATI

Belleli (Contes de la Lune, 2005, etc.) tells the story of a
continent-crossing hero in this mythology-infused children’s novel.

Tali Nohkati is the child of the
first man and first woman, watched over by Moon and Coyote, the two primordial
beings who created the world. After a great fire kills Tali Nohkati’s parents
and renders the land barren and dead, the Moon and Coyote are forced to send
the boy on a journey to find a new home in the lands beyond the horizon. He
first goes to the White Land of ice and snow, where the polar bear Yupik
teaches him to hunt. When winter comes, he builds a boat and follows the whale
Atii south to warmer climes. Along the way, Atii helps him fish, and when a storm
destroys his skiff, the whale allows him to ride in her throat. After further
adventures in forests, plains, and deserts among wolves, bison, and snakes,
respectively, Tali Nohkati finally reaches the Land of the Red Earth, where he
finds his fellow men. Rakenika, a man who wears an eagle feather in his hair,
adopts the boy into his tribe and teaches him the ways of the Great Hunt. The
world of men is even more complex than that of animals, however, and Tali
Nohkati will have to weather a host of dangers—both human and superhuman—before
he’ll find peace. Belleli, as translated from the French by debut translator Heller, tells the story in the simple but
often lyrical prose style of a folktale, as in this passage, in which injured
bison Atsina entreats the boy to make use of his body: “ ‘But who talks of
leaving me?’ the bison said reassuringly, in a last effort. ‘You will take me
with you. You will eat my meat, and I will give you my strength. You will tan
my skin, and I will shelter your nights.’ ” The novel appears to borrow bits of
mythology from across the Americas, from the Eskimo-Aleut names of the polar
bears to an appearance by the monstrous Huracan of the ancient Mayans. Often
allegorical and always magical, the book manages to feel simultaneously ancient
and contemporary.

A delicately rendered homage to Native
American storytelling.