It's a long way from a basement apartment in a Montreal suburb to a new life on a fictional planet, but that's the destination our unnamed narrator has set his sights on, bringing readers with him on an off-beat and often hilarious journey. Along the way, he writes poems, buys groceries at the dollar store, and earns minimum wage at a dead-end supermarket job. But not to worry—he is John McClane, he is the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi (with a bacteria he's never heard of), he is Justin Timberla...

This book tells the fascinating story of Montreal, Canada, from prehistoric time through the 21st century. From the Iroquoian community of Hochelaga to the bustling economic metropolis that Montreal has become, this account describes the social, economic, political, and cultural forces and trends that have driven the city's development, shedding light on the city's French, British, and American influences. Outlining Montreal's diverse ethnic and cultural origins and its strategic geographi...

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...

Emile Claudel is no ordinary child. Only months after he was born, following the liberation of France in 1945, he can already speak several languages, much to his mother's frustration. Emile, nicknamed the Little Fox for his appearance, 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 Emile on his journey toward adulthood, as the country he was born into passes ...

It's 1963, Jean-Yves Soucy is 18 and looking for a summer job. He dreams of being a fire warden scanning the boreal forest from a fire tower. But to his dismay he is sent to an equipment depot somewhere between Val-d'Or and Chibougamau in Northern Quebec. His disappointment vanishes when he learns that the depot is located near a Cree community and that he will have two Cree guides, including a man named William Saganash, and his work will involve canoeing through the lakes and rivers of t...

A thrilling escape through a land of betrayal and cultural conflict awaits young Radisson.The year is 1654. Radisson finds his diplomatic skills tested as tensions rise between the French and the Iroquois. He must navigate the treacherous waters of religious fervor, distrustful traders, and the ever-present threat of war. As Radisson forges friendships with Iroquois favoring peace, a web of conspiracy tightens around him, threatening to plunge the region into chaos...

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...

"I hate hockey!" is the first and last sentence in this novel that offers a great take on our love-hate relationship with sports, be it hockey, football, soccer or baseball. Narrator Antoine Vachon blames the game for killing his marriage with his beautiful ex-wife (well, that and the power outage that brought her home unexpectedly to find him in bed with her intern). But hockey is a pretext for unlikely adventure in this sardonic roman noir that at times flirts with the outrageous. Antoin...

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...

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...

Cupcakes, panda bears, break-ups, wearing sunglasses at night... The local and the universal come together in these 37 short stories, brought into English by different translators from all over the world. This project aims to show there are all kinds of ways to bring across an author's voice in translation… at least 37 of them (one for each story). Translators include literary translation students, first-time and up-and-coming literary translators, world-renowned translators who have won m...

Philippe is a creature of habit now, a man of routine. Trapped in an uninspiring job, with a wife, two children, and an uneventful life in the suburbs of Montreal, his wild student days spent chasing neo-Nazis across Europe was a lifetime ago. Until a ghost from the past turns up on his doorstep. Old friend Robert Moranowitz convinces Philippe to return to his activist ways, leaving everything behind to hunt down a dangerous band of white supremacists.But why are Philippe and Mora ...