| « A fresh little novel, teeming with life, of uncommon strength, to be situated somewhere between Emile Ajar and Réjean Ducharme. » Gilles Marcotte, L’actualité « Put this book on your rereading or reading list, along with L’éducation sentimentale de Flaubert. » Pierre Yergeau, writer « What a beautiful story! And what a fervor… This first novel is a beautiful bouquet of emotions, sometimes serious and sometimes cheerful, composed with constant care.» Réginald Martel, La Presse |
| Le souffle de l’harmattan (Les Allusifs, 2002) is the story of a chosen brotherhood shaped by shared dreams. Habéké Axoum, a young African survivor of “a war of men added to the drought of God”, finds himself in Canada after having seen his family die. The well-being of his new material life cannot silence his aspiration to find Ityopya, his mythical homeland. In his mad quest, Habéké meets Hugues Francoeur, an orphan raised in a foster family and the narrator of the novel. Together, they will try by all means to escape from the vulgarity, stupidity, violence and latent racism that surround them. A moving and disturbing story that constantly balances between lucidity and hallucinatory thoughts. The novel was ranked in the top-10 best Quebec book of the decade and received the Prix Molson de l’Académie des Lettres du Québec and the Prix Canada-Suisse. |