L’Habitude des bêtes est un roman superbe, court et simple, qui s’attache à mettre en récit l’impermanence–la qualité éphémère de toute chose–à travers les yeux d’un jeune retraité nommé Benoît. Narrée à la première personne, l’histoire vous enveloppe dans l’intimité…
Il y a tout un pan sublime de la littérature canadienne-française dont les histoires se situent dans des communautés très reculées, voire oubliées, et dont le style magnifique et poétique de l’écriture contraste violemment avec les tragédies qu’elles narrent. Il…
You clash with my constructed atmosphere. The stories of First Things First feel so much like confidences. They are essentially the intimate thoughts of twenty-four women whose inner life is at odds with the outside world. Some of those ladies…
We are in 1968. A small coastal village of Labrador sees the birth of a baby with ambiguous sexual traits. At the hospital, it’s a mere ruler who decides upon the infant’s fate: “Penis size at birth is the primary…
Cedric is so insignificant that he doesn’t get to be the main character of his own life. When this nondescript middle-age man sees himself traveling in time to notable events of his past, he can’t get anyone to acknowledge the…
Did you love Animal Farm by George Orwell? Then Fifteen Dogs is for you. This new novel by André Alexis, shortlisted for the Giller Prize 2015, features a group of pet dogs who are suddenly given human intelligence. Greek gods…
There’s nothing as terrifying as being told your newborn “will be sick a good deal and require special medical and nursing care, which cannot be given at home.” This is what Margaret Harrington from The Unfinished Child was told after…
Daydreams of Angels is a little piece of magic. It brought me back to the same feelings I had in my childhood while reading Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. These books immersed me in a world of wonders,…
The Birth House‘s protagonist, Dora Rare, is such a fan of Jane Austen that on the first time she helps a mother through childbirth, she names the baby Darcy, after the character of Pride and Prejudice. Interesting, considering The Birth…