A surprise return home triggers a chain of events, their strands weaving together a sinister web of dreams and reality, truth and lies, secrets and spells.
Following in the tradition of Fortierâs absurdist first novel, The Unknown Huntsman, this is a dark and offbeat tale about lost love, lost dreams, and one lost limb.
âThrough its fine translation by Katherine Hastings, The Electric Bathsâs exquisite language and wry omniscience result in a dark, delightful landscape of curious happenings.â (â â â â â , Foreword Reviews)
âThe citizens of this community are dealing with an uncanny series of events and emotions that are puzzling and in many cases hard to define. [âŠ] unique.â (Steven Buechler, The Library of Pacific Tranquility)
âFortier (The Unknown Huntsman) threads reality with dreams in this enchanting tale about a small unnamed village full eccentric characters and secrets [âŠ] slim and wispy with curious characters and effortless prose.â (Publishers Weekly)
âThe Electric Baths is a clever book where weâre only really sure whatâs happening when itâs finally over [âŠ] a fun, enjoyable readâ (Tony Malone, Tonyâs Reading List)
âIt would be remiss not to mention Fortierâs style, his originality, his colourfulness. His influences? I could go in a few different directions: Fred Pellerin, Michel Tremblay, Jacques Ferron⊠all of them good! It makes you want to go back and read his first novel, and to hope thereâs another on its way.â (Martin PrĂ©vost, pieuvre.ca)
âThe latest, second novel by Jean-Michel Fortier was highly anticipated for good reason: with The Unknown Huntsman, its predecessor, Fortier created a world all his own, a world composed of mystery and intrigue in a far-flung, unnamed village, scrambling all our points of reference and using subtle, sardonic humour to take great delight in fiddling with language and narrative techniques.â (Jean-SĂ©bastien DorĂ©, Impact Campus)