Shortage of paper (recycled or not), skyrocketing costs for paper, printing and transporting books, printers no longer supply by the job, books stuck in Asia or British Columbia due to forest fires: we can no longer count the effects of the pandemic on the book industry in Quebec.
Never mind, the literary comeback here is in full swing. As proof, we already find on the shelves the novels of Larry Tremblay (Board end of love, La Peuplade), Christian Guay-Poliquin (The shadows stringy, La Peuplade), Daniel Leblanc-Poirier (The disappearance of mirrors, VLB editor), Clara Dupuis–Morency (Sadie X, Héliotrope) and Marie-Sissi Labrèche (225 milligrams of me, Leméac).
And as the figures unveiled by the French Language Title Bank (BTLF) prove, Quebeckers are as fond of their literature as ever. In fact, on August 12, I buy a Quebec book day resulted in a 7.7-fold increase in sales of fiction here. Unheard of since its creation in 2014!
Hard reality
All honor, let’s start this back-to-school overview with the one who ranked second in sales among independent booksellers, the first place having been occupied by youth author Élise Gravel (The small fan club beasts, Les 400 coups), that is to say Michel Jean (Kukum, Libre Expression), which publishes its eighth novel. In Tiohtiá:ke (Libre Expression, October 28), meaning “Montreal” in the Mohawk language, the Innu writer and journalist, who was interested in the drama of residential schools for Indigenous people, this time looks at the problem of Indigenous homelessness in Urban.
Psychological distress among Indigenous people will also be at the heart of Nauetakuan, a silence for a noise (XYZ, November 24). Multi-talented Innu artist and activist for indigenous and environmental rights, Natasha Sofa Fontaine(Blueberries and apricots, Mémoire Encrier) signs here her first novel where, through the fate of an artist from the First Nations wishing to overcome intergenerational trauma, she exploits the theme of rediscovering identity through art.
While Natasha Kanapé Fontaine addresses toxic loves in her novel, Olga Duhamel-Walnut (Mykonos) tackles it head-on in Another life is possible (Héliotrope, September 29). Set in 1970s Montreal, his fifth novel features young Valéry and his mother Micheline, leader of a revolutionary cell. However, their great revolutionary dream will take a tragic turn when a comrade is the victim of domestic violence.
For its part, Marie Laberge (the trilogy Gabrielle, Boréal) deals head-on with the theme of feminicide in Backlash (QA, October 27). One evening in April, a man shows up in a shop to shoot point blank at the women there. Three will fall under the bullets. “Bold and moving”, we are promised.
Revisiting your past
Eight years later Why Bologna (in paperback from October 12), where it split between two eras, Alain Farah | returns to the literary forefront with an autobiographical novel in which he reveals himself as he had never done before. Dedicated to the memory of her best friend, A thousand secrets, a thousand dangers (Le Quartanier, September 28) features two men who grew up in the Lebanese quarter of Montreal. The day one of them gets married, the ghosts of the past reappear for better or for worse. According to the publisher, Farah is reinventing herself as a writer.
In A heart inhabited by a thousand voices (Boréal, September 28), Marie-Claire Blais breaks with the characters of his large romantic fresco Thirsts to reconnect with those of Nights of the Underground (1978) and The angel of loneliness (1989). In particular, we find René, an old sick pianist, who refuses his nurse to remind him that he is not a man and who longs for his former mistresses. As her female characters recall their loves and struggles against intolerance, the venerable lady of letters traces the history of LGBTQ + activism.
For his part, Audrée Wilhelmy(White Resin) dive back into the universe ofUs and finds Noah, known as the Little One, her favorite character, in Bend the river (Leméac, September 22). In this amoral tale with erotic accents and iodine scents, where the author creates a trinity composed of father, son and bear, Noah meets Emessie, a traveling candy seller, who will soon have to tame the beast in him.
Inspiring territories
Also plunging into the past, Mathieu Raymond Bock (Secondary drownings) revive the transformations of Montreal in the XXe century, such as the erection of the towers of the city center, the construction of the bridge-tunnel and the metro, while sticking to the dramas of a working-class family from the Faubourg Morel (August Horse, November 2). In doing so, he recalls the plight of poor families victims of expropriation for the benefit of the modernization and gentrification of neighborhoods.
With its rains of frogs and its apparitions of the Virgin, the Saint-Sauveur district as imagined by Charles Quimper (Rising tide) is miles from the one depicted Lyne Richard in her bittersweet collection of short stories Prismacolor nO 325 (Lévesque, in bookstores). Neighborhood chronicle spanning the 1970s to today, A smell of avalanche (Viola, September 13) relates the unwavering friendship between a Lady in Green and a lonely Cowboy.
Finally, 2021 will have been a good year for the prolific Fanie Demeule. A little after Mukbang (Head first, released in spring) and Bagels (Hammock, released in August), here she is back with Highlands(QA, September 28). Camped in the misty, mysterious and mountainous landscapes of Scotland, this thriller features three travelers, a doctoral student, a mother and a survivor, who will have no other choice but to join forces to face their challenges. spectra.
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