Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette

Chloe is a young Canadian doctor who lives in Jerusalem and works in Ramallah. Every day she passes through the checkpoints between the two feuding sides to monitor the pregnancies of young women. As she spends time with Rand, one of her patients, she learns more about life in the occupied territories. The more time she spends with Rand and her family, Chloe becomes torn between two sides of the conflict.

SHORTLISTED FOR CBC CANADA READS 2019 WINNER OF THE BEST TRANSLATED BOOK AWARD Eighty-five years of art and history through the eyes of a woman who fled her family - as re-imagined by her granddaughter. Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette never knew her mother's mother. Curious to understand why her grandmother, Suzanne, a sometime painter and poet associated with Les Automatistes, a movement of dissident artists that included Paul-Émile Borduas, abandoned her husband and young family, Barbeau-Lavalette hired a private detective to piece together Suzanne's life. Suzanne, winner of the Prix des libraires du Québec and a bestseller in French, is a fictionalized account of Suzanne's life over eighty-five years, from Montreal to New York to Brussels, from lover to lover, through an abortion, alcoholism, Buddhism, and an asylum. It takes readers through the Great Depression, Québec's Quiet Revolution, women's liberation, and the American civil rights movement, offering a portrait of a volatile, fascinating woman on the margins of history. And it's a granddaughter's search for a past for herself, for understanding and forgiveness. 'It's about a nameless despair, an unbearable sadness. But it's also a reflection on what it means to be a mother, and an artist. Most of all, it's a magnificent novel.'- Les Méconnus

"The lives of three families intersect in the hallways of an apartment block in a Montreal neighborhood. Kevin lives in 62. His mom took off but it's okay because his dad's a wrestler and he always wins. Even when he gets laid off from his job. Melissa is in 64. She has to look after her siblings because there's a restraining order that means her mom can't be within fifty metres of them. So when Melissa needs to tell her something, she leaves a note on the sidewalk near where her mother is looking for customers. And Roxane, in 61, obsessed with the violin, collects her mom's empties so she can sell them for a snack at the depanneur. They hear each other through the thin walls. They're all more grown up than they should be for twelve-year-olds, and they're all alone -- so alone they don't even try to find solace in one another's company. Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, author of the acclaimed Suzanne (2019 Canada Reads shortlist, Best Translated Book Award nominee, international bestseller), encountered real-life versions of these kids when she was making her film Le Ring. With her characteristic poetic flair and generosity, she has painted, in brief strokes, an unforgettable and moving portrait of a fictional apartment block in Montreal."--