Christian Dorsan, contributor to the 20 Minutes Books reading group, recommends “The Snow Trails” by Kev Lambert, published on October 4, 2024 by Éditions Le Nouvel Attila.
His favorite quote:
« We are dust carried by the wind, plants which have ejected their pollen, mushrooms which have released their spores. We are all of that: the tiniest of things, the entire landscape. We meet, we mix and we form a vast swamp where nothing is discernible, no absolutes, no more you or me. The borders are collapsing, we are a large outlineless drawing whose colors are drowning. » »
Why this book?
- Because reading Kevin (name him « Kev » now) Lambert it’s traveling in the language of Quebec and surprising yourself in articulating with the accent of our cousins across the Atlantic. In just a few years, it has become a must-have for the literary season by offering strong and captivating novels. Forgotten the “controversy” of last year which did not prevent it from obtaining the Prix Médicis, this year, it is a novel which oscillates between fiction and reality, between children’s imagination and the cruel world of adults. , a biting novel with incredible poetry.
- Because we find the theme of childhood and this fear of leaving her to join the thankless age, that of pre-teens, then the world of adults. And the adults in this novel, they are barely caricatured, but behind a collective delirium which seizes the Lamontagne family on Christmas Eve, hide cracks, wounds, very beautiful detailed portraits, stories of brothers who behave like dirty kids and who don’t understand the world of children, all under the severe eye of a matriarch still affected by the loss of her husband.
- Because by flying to save Skyd, an escaped creature of a video game, Emie-Ann and her cousin Zoey will exhume their traumas to overcome them. The incredible imagination of these two children will meet and materialize in a chase through snow tunnels where fantastic or frightening worlds await them. The author has this intelligence to make accessible to the reader a universe from which rationality and our reflexes of coherence are excluded. The words carry us into a whirlwind that seems endless, where we can half-guess the dismay of the two cousins.
- Because if the imagination unites, the two cousins are not fooled: it is indeed life and the masks that adults impose that create the differences. Emie-Ann is an adopted child of Chinese origin, she becomes aware of her place in the family and in her Quebec nationality, also adopted, as for Zoey, child of divorcees, the question of gender identity opposes the notion of virility that his father Carl wishes for. A week of Christmas vacation which turns out to be an initiation and marks the end of childhood, much to the despair of our young heroes.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot. Zoey finds Emie-Ann for Christmas without her cousin and together, they will have to save Skyd, a creature escaped from a video game, before entering the age of preteens unless it is a question of saving themselves- even in the adult world.
The characters. Zoey and her separated parents Lina and Carl, Emie-Ann child adopted by Sandra and Benoit, the Lamontagne family, Skyd escaped from a video game and masks.
The places. Chicoutoumi, Lac Saint-Jean, Quebec and tunnels in the snow.
The era. from Christmas 2004 to January 2005.
The author. Kev Lambert is a Canadian author who received the Médicis Prize in 2023 for his novel Let Our Joy Remain and the de Sade Prize for Querelle. He is very involved in the Quebec literary scene.
This book was read with an immense tenderness for these two children who are afraid of leaving childhood and putting on their faces the mask that adults impose on them. Between science fiction, psychological and poetic novel, Kev Lambert demonstrates that he is a great author who must now be counted on.
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