What anxiety grips Petites Cendres as he runs towards the sea in the sunshine on a warm tropical morning? Shouldn’t he be reassured by the thought that he now lives at the Acacia Gardens, a comfortable home where all find care, understanding, and healing? How can Fleur, the young musical prodigy, listen to the diabolical confessions of Wrath, the fugitive priest, without shuddering? And, can Daniel the writer finish his novel, the one he has been working on for twenty years, despite his sensitivity and empathy for all creatures, even if they are the most humble, like the lizard he inadvertently crushed under his sandal?
With this latest novel, Marie-Claire Blais once again gives us a vibrant portrait that embraces the span of life — from birth to death and beyond. Her characters question their purpose and what will come after, as they are confronted by evil that lives and that has taken root.
What anxiety grips Petites Cendres as he runs towards the sea in the sunshine on a warm tropical morning? Shouldn’t he be reassured by the thought that he now lives at the Acacia Gardens, a comfortable home where all find care, understanding, and healing? How can Fleur, the young musical prodigy, listen to the diabolical confessions of Wrath, the fugitive priest, without shuddering? And, can Daniel the writer finish his novel, the one he has been working on for twenty years, despite his sensitivity and empathy for all creatures, even if they are the most humble, like the lizard he inadvertently crushed under his sandal?
With this latest novel, Marie-Claire Blais once again gives us a vibrant portrait that embraces the span of life — from birth to death and beyond. Her characters question their purpose and what will come after, as they are confronted by evil that lives and that has taken root.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Jun 4, 2016 |
| Specifications | 184 pages | 5.25 in x 8 in |
| Keywords | quebecois writer; quebecois; writers from quebec; psychological fiction; literary fiction; smart fiction; books that make you think; translation; translated; experimental; award winning author; classics; classic; |
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| Written By |
MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS (1939-2001) was the internationally revered author of more than twenty-five books, many of which have been published around the world. In addition to the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, which she won four times, Blais was awarded the Gilles-Corbeil Prize, the Médicis Prize, the Molson Prize, and Guggenheim Fellowships. She divided her time between Key West, Florida, and Quebec. |
| Written By |
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MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS (1939-2001) was the internationally revered author of more than twenty-five books, many of which have been published around the world. In addition to the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, which she won four times, Blais was awarded the Gilles-Corbeil Prize, the Médicis Prize, the Molson Prize, and Guggenheim Fellowships. She divided her time between Key West, Florida, and Quebec. |
“The Acacia Gardens is a sublime evocation of human existence in all its darkness and light, and even achieves a kind of dualism that escaped its modernist antecedents.” —Globe and Mail
“… moral complexities and the grandiosity of Blaise’s language give this book its appeal…” —Toronto Star
“Life throbs on every page of this breathtaking work and stirs us, dazzles us, and lulls us.” —TVA/Salut Bonjour
“A magnificent song of pain, full and hypnotic.” —Nightlife.ca
Praise for Marie-Claire Blais and The Acacia Gardens:
"Without a doubt Blais is the greatest living Quebec writer at present, she will certainly leave an incredible and inexhaustible legacy for scholars of her work." — La Presse
"A magnificent song of pain, full and hypnotic." — Nightlife.ca
"Life throbs on every page of this breathtaking work and stirs us, dazzles us, and lulls us." — TVA/Salut Bonjour
"… moral complexities and the grandiosity of Blaise’s language give this book its appeal…" — Toronto Star
"The Acacia Gardens is a sublime evocation of human existence in all its darkness and light, and even achieves a kind of dualism that escaped its modernist antecedents." — Globe and Mail