The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches

by Soucy, Gaétan; Fischman, Sheila

• ISBN13: 9781487001339
• ISBN10: 1487001339
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-07-11
• Publisher: House of Anansi Press

Summary

Alone with their authoritarian father on an immense estate surrounded by a forest, a pair of siblings speak a language and inhabit a universe of their own making. When their father commits suicide, they are forced into contact with the villagers beyond the enclosure and their cloak of romance and superstition quickly falls away to reveal not only the startling truth about themselves, but the startling truth about the world to them.

Balancing naiveté with carnality, Soucy creates a powerfully gripping story where nothing is as it first seems. His surprising twists and fascination with guilt, cruelty, and violence make this story a resounding triumph.

Featuring a new introduction by Rawi Hage, the Dublin IMPAC award–winning author of DeNiro’s Game.

Author Biography

GAÉTAN SOUCY was a novelist and professor. He published four novels to wide acclaim in Canada and abroad: The Immaculate Conception, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction; Atonement, Vaudeville!; and The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, which was translated into more than ten languages. He died in Montreal in 2013.

SHEILA FISCHMAN is the award-winning translator of more than 150 contemporary novels from Quebec, including works by Roch Carrier, Pascale Quiviger, Anne Hébert, Kim Thúy, and many others. Her translations have been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award. She was awarded the Molson Prize in the Arts, and is a Member of the Order of Canada and a chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec. She lives in Montreal.