Émile Claudel is no ordinary child. Only months after his birth, following the liberation of France in 1945, he can already chatter away in several languages, much to his mother’s frustration. Nicknamed the Little Fox for his appearance, Émile is born into a loveless home, where patience is in short supply. Abandoned by his family, he struggles to find a place in society. This deftly written coming-of-age novel follows Émile on his journey toward adulthood, as his country moves away from a...

Rosa Ost grows up in Notre-Dame-du-Cachalot, a tiny village at the end of the world, where two industries are king: paper and Boredom. The only daughter of Terese Ost (a fair-to-middling trade unionist and a first-rate Scrabble player), the fate that befalls Rosa is the focus of this tale of long journeys and longer lives, of impossible deaths, unwavering prophecies, and unsettling dreams as she leaves her village for Montreal on a quest to summon the westerly wind that has proved so vital...

Though both parents were alive, Richard and his four brothers lived in an orphanage for five years! It was in 1959, five floors of dormitories at fifty children a floor, with nuns’ cells on each floor. Richard recalls that, “as in all concentration-camp systems, daily life is dull and repetitive.” Some get up, make their beds, say their prayers, while others line up for the strap. It’s just routine. Sometimes for some people it’s fun, or at least tolerable. For others, it is unbearable. Bu...

The story of a public personality—the possible future mayor of Montreal—this memoir recounts how Richard Bergeron and his four brothers lived in an orphanage for five years in the 1960s. Set in a small city in Northern Quebec, surrounded by bush and industry, this account describes the five floors of dormitories with 50 children on each floor, the daily routine, and the nuns who ran the orphanage. This short and moving story of how Richard began the rest of his life will take the reader to...

Nadia Comaneci's gold-medal performance at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976 is the starting point for a whole new generation. Eric Dupont watches the performance on TV, mesmerized. The son of a police officer (Henry VIII) and a professional cook—as he likes to remind us—he grows up in the depths of the Quebec countryside with a new address for almost every birthday and little but memories of his mother to hang on to. His parents have divorced, and the novel's narrator relates his chil...

A gripping tale of survival and adventure in the New World. The year is 1684. Twelve-year-old Eustache Bréman leaves behind a life of misery begging on the streets of France for a second chance in the New World with his mom, his sweetheart Marie-Élisabeth, and Marie-Élisabeth's family.But life is tough, with plenty more tragedy and disappointment to come on De La Salle's ill-fated expedition to the Mississippi. As Eustache comes of age in Louisiana, he must navigat...

The year is 1684. Young Eustache Bréman leaves a life of misery begging on the streets of France for a second chance in the New World with his mom, his sweetheart Marie-Élisabeth, and Marie-Élisabeth’s family. But life is tough, with plenty more tragedy and disappointment to come on Cavelier De La Salle’s ill-fated expedition to the Mississippi. Mutinous leaders, bloodthirsty freebooters, a hostile Karankawa nation and the wild Gulf Coast bayous make for heartbreaking adventure. Weaving re...

Nadia Comaneci’s gold-medal performance at the Olympic Games in Montreal is the starting point for a whole new generation. Eric Dupont watches the performance on TV, mesmerized. The son of a police officer (Henry VIII) and a professional cook—as he likes to remind us—he grows up in the depths of the Quebec countryside with a new address for almost every birthday and little but memories of his mother to hang onto. His parents have divorced, and the novel’s narrator relates his childhood, co...

A haunting coming-of-age story set in post-war France, where a young boy grapples with identity, abandonment, and the secrets of his small village.Émile Claudel, nicknamed the Little Fox, is an unusual child, speaking several languages shortly after birth. Growing up in a loveless home in Mayerville, France, he feels like an outsider, struggling to find his place. Abandoned and left to navigate a world filled with eccentric characters and hidden truths, Émile embar...

In the spring of 1651, a 15-year-old Parisian, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, lands in Trois-Rivières on the St. Lawrence River. Within weeks, the course of his life changes dramatically when Iroquois braves capture him. Canoeing across rivers and lakes and portaging over mountains, Radisson's captors take him to distant lands where they first torture him, then adopt him as a brother. In this first tome of the adventures of North America's most famous coureur des bois—an independent entr...

In this extraordinary breakout novel – a rich, devastatingly humorous epic of one unforgettable family – award-winning author Eric Dupont illuminates the magic of stories, the bonds of family, and the twists of fate and fortune to transform our lives.A new translation of Eric Dupont’s La fiancée américaineOver the course of the twentieth century, three generations of the Lamontagnes will weather love, passion, jealousy, revenge and...

Nadia Comaneci’s gold-medal performance at the Olympic Games in Montreal is the starting point for a whole new generation. Eric Dupont watches the performance on TV, mesmerized. The son of a police officer (Henry VIII) and a professional cook—as he likes to remind us—he grows up in the depths of the Quebec countryside with a new address for almost every birthday and little but memories of his mother to hang on to. His parents have divorced, and the novel’s narrator relates his childhood, c...