No Grave for This Place
- Publisher
- Vehicule Press
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2020
- Category
- Canadian
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781550655605
- Publish Date
- Oct 2020
- List Price
- $17.99
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781550655568
- Publish Date
- Sep 2020
- List Price
- $17.95
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Description
A rogue moose wanders into a suburb near Quebec city, tramples lawns and gardens, stumbles in and out of a swimming pool, is tracked by three gun toting heads of family who shoot it down just as a school bus goes by wherein a little girl is trilling "Three Little Kittens." Thus begins No Grave For This Place, Judy Quinn's bleak, ironic, and at times darkly comic tribute to Auberivière, the neighbourhood where she grew up. Here "streets are landing strips / for planes that will never arrive,"
the dead "descend / the steps of prefab houses / champagne flutes in their hands,"
and a pack of cats "throws itself on the electric fences / surrounding our inner lives." Quinn's voice will resonate with all those who have, by association or from experience, tasted the cultural barrenness that can underlie civilized life.
About the authors
Judy Quinn was born in 1974, in Quebec City. She has published three novels and four collections of poetry, the most recent of which, Pas de tombeau pour les lieux (No Grave For This Place), was a finalist for the Prix Alain-Grandbois, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for French language poetry.
Donald Winkler was born in Winnipeg, graduated from the University of Manitoba, and did graduate study at the Yale School of Drama. From 1967 to 1995 he was a film director and writer at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, and since the 1980s, a translator of Quebec literature. In 1994, 2011, and 2013 he won the Governor General Award for French to English translation, and has been a finalist for the prize on three other occasions. His translation of Samuel Archibald's short story collection, "Arvida," was a finalist for the 2015 Giller Prize. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Editorial Reviews
Praise for No Grave for This Place:
"This intense collection, which unfolds around loss and decay, finds its most beautiful embodiment in the precision of its gaze"--Le Devoir
