Winner of the Governor General''s Literary Award:
Translation
Literary legend and four-time winner of the Governor General''s
Literary Award Marie-Claire Blais delivers the latest installment
in her ongoing portrait of life in contemporary North America.
In this swirling fresco, we meet unforgettable characters, some
familiar from previous works, some new. This time, Blais lets us
into the consciousness of fifteen-year-old Mai, an unusually
perceptive young woman whose uncensored observations on femininity
and youth, freedom and constraint belie her age. And, in the Porte
du Baiser Saloon, we meet a group of boys who adorn themselves in
colourful dresses and wigs before they take to the stage to sing
and dance every evening after darkness falls. They open their arms
to those who are excluded - both men and women, triumphant and
threatened, both free and bound.
With this astonishing new novel, Blais gives us a remarkable
chronicle of our modern age teeming with characters who seem to
represent the whole of humanity. She invites us to share the drama
of perfect joy, the tragedy of happiness, and she gives us her best
work yet.