Renée Robitaille | Hommes de pioche

All the miners I met wore a small vial around their necks. A golden vial. Engraved by the mine with the date “May 20, 1952.” Around my neck hung the vial of the Great Zaphat. I had been entrusted with delivering it to him. I roamed the lands of Abitibi, my native region. I searched for the Great Zaphat — in taverns, in the mines. And I found him through the stories of all the pickaxe men he saved that day, the day the swamp flooded the mine.

The book Hommes de pioche was published by Éditions Planète rebelle in 2008 and reissued in 2023.