WINNER OF GRAND PRIX DU LIVRE DE MONTRÉAL 2025
An anxious child trying not to bite her crystal glass. A man who dreams of putting down roots in the middle of the pavement. A woman who hides away in empty houses to escape prying eyes. Each stories centre on a defining event, an unsettling, disturbing, and at times even harrowing moment, where the tension reaches its peak.
At stake here is the gaze -being seen, being looked at, looking, knowing one is being looked at, being seen without realising one is being looked at…-, but also the appearance, what exposes us to the world and the discrepancies that exist between who we are, what we represent, what we project, and the perception we have of ourselves; what the gaze implies for our life paths.
Seventeen microfictions driven by a rhythm, a breath which carries us along and bewitches us. Like a chamber of echoes, an architecture of reflections, the short stories respond one to another, elements travel from one story to the next, characters reappear in a new light; motifs, quotations and thoughts, pass from one voice to another; carrying us along in a single flow to unfold a fleeting moment and grasp its significance. These intimate stories confront us with our own weekness, yet they always prompt a genuinely societal reflection, as the personal and the social collide with terrifying accuracy. At once lucid and blinded, disappointed and desiring, the characters in Les Traits difficiles hold up to us a sharp mirror.
Evelyne de la Chenelière observes the world we live in, noting all its absurdities and incongruities, and celebrating the beauty of small things. An exceptional collection of short stories.
Sophie Cadieux, Sucré Givré
This text is a gentle, flowing stream.
Gérald Fillion
Magnificent!
Nouveau Projet
Magnificent!
L’actualité
The personal and the social collide in a strikingly accurate way.
Le Devoir
The stories mirror each other, giving the impression of a book that reads itself, only to reinvent itself with each turn of the page.
Liberté
These stories explore the ambiguity of relationships with poetic and dense writing.
Sarriette de ville