Nadia Comaneci’s gold-medal performance at the Olympic Games in Montreal is the starting point for a whole new generation. Eric Dupont watches the performance on TV, mesmerized. The son of a police officer (Henry VIII) and a professional cook—as he likes to remind us—he grows up in the depths of the Quebec countryside with a new address for almost every birthday and little but memories of his mother to hang onto. His parents have divorced, and the novel’s narrator relates his childhood, comparing it to a family gymnastics performance worthy of Nadia herself.
Life in the court of Matane is unforgiving, and we explore different facets of it (dreams of sovereignty, schoolyard bullying, imagined missions to Russia, poems by Baudelaire), each based around an encounter with a different animal, until the narrator befriends a great horned owl, summons up the courage to let go of the upper bar forever, and makes his glorious escape.
PRAISE FOR LIFE IN THE COURT OF MATANE
“This novel from Dupont … the first from a new fiction imprint dedicated to publishing ‘the very best of a new generation of Quebec storytellers in flawless English translation,’ lives up to that ambition. … By turns poignant, playful, and nostalgic, the book evokes ’70s Quebec with the quirky but successful device of combining an autobiographical family story with motifs drawn from fable, history, politics and myth. … Translator McCambridge beautifully captures the joyous top notes and the darker undercurrents of this fascinating voice.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Dupont is a writer of such intelligence and skill that he is able to not only become a philosopher, but a poet, who not only understands the horrors of a dysfunctional childhood, but also knows what is beautiful about it. And this book is a testament to his unwavering generosity towards both his characters and the people of Quebec.” (Heather O’Neill, author)
“Wildly imaginative … a remarkably sensitive and intelligent coming-of-age story told with an irresistible blend of heartache, humour and magic.” (Numéro Cinq)
“A beautiful, tragicomic coming-of-age story … This translation is knocking my socks off.” (Bronwyn Averett, Book Riot)
“With an excellent translation by McCambridge, one which reads smoothly and keeps the humour which undoubtedly pervades the original, Dupont’s novel makes for an entertaining look at a Québécois childhood. … It all makes for an impressive start for QC Fiction.” (Tony’s Reading List)
“a captivating voice that sharply trapezes between a heightened version of his parents’ divorce and life in the countryside … Eric’s insights brim with intelligence.” (Foreword Reviews)
“Tangential, expansive in its ability to capture youth at a crossroads, and unexpectedly piercing … an inventive novel” (Foreword Reviews)
“QC Fiction has done a great service to English readers everywhere by translating this popular Quebec novel for us.” (The Miramichi Reader)
“an irreverent cocktail … a feast of a novel, calorie-filled and decadent” (Québec Reads)
“At the time, it seemed all of Quebec was trying to stay aloft between many sets of uneven bars. There was the feud between the sovereigntists and the federalists keeping society off-balance … The conservative traditionalism of the Duplessis era was disappearing in favour of the more progressive values of the Quiet Revolution. Religious faith was dissipating in Quebec homes, yet children were still being taught by nuns in Catholic schools. Comaneci’s gymnastics set the scene for an exploration of all these faultlines in Dupont’s autobiographical novel, Life in the Court of Matane. … For the informed, and for those prepared to laugh at Quebec’s peccadilloes, this is a hilarious romp.” (Quill & Quire)
“a classic coming-of-age novel worth pondering over” (Steven Buechler, The Library of Pacific Tranquility)
“a highly original read” (PRISM magazine)
“Dupont’s gift is that his stories have never been told in such a way before, could only ever be told in that way, and will never again be told like that.” (Buried in Print)
Eric Dupont was born in Amqui, Quebec, in 1970. He left his native Gaspé Peninsula at age 16 for Austria and other faraway locales, returning to Quebec in 2003 to accept a position as a lecturer in translation at the McGill University School of Continuing Studies. His fourth novel, La Fiancée américaine, released in 2012, won the Prix des libraires du Québec and the Prix littéraire des collégiens. Its English translation by Peter McCambridge, Songs for the Cold of Heart, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2018 and subsequently published by HarperVia, outside of Canada, under the title The American Fiancée. One of the hallmarks of Eric’s writing is the juxtaposition of the supernatural and real worlds. The lighthearted tone of his work often belies undercurrents of deeper themes and meanings.
Originally from Ireland, Peter McCambridge holds a BA in modern languages from Cambridge University, England, and has lived in Quebec City since 2003. He runs Québec Reads and now QC Fiction. Life in the Court of Matane was the first novel he chose for this collection and the book that made him want to become a literary translator in the first place. His translation of the first chapter won the 2012 John Dryden Translation Prize. His translations have been World Literature Today Notable Translations, longlisted for Canada Reads, and finalists for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Translation.