12 books for the winter literary season

Under the sheets, near the fire, at the chalet or between two slides, we snuggle up warm to read all winter long. Here are 12 new literary releases expected this season.

A silent story

In old photos, Thérèse Lefebvre, née Larin, seems elsewhere, her gaze filled with a mysterious absence. She has been missing for more than 50 years and her story has remained in the shadows, a silence weighing on family memory. Her granddaughter, Alexandra Boilard-Lefebvre, sets out to bring back to life this woman she never knew. During a meticulous quest, she collects testimonies, explores traces of the past and brings Thérèse back to life, a woman whose dreams were erased in the quiet suburbs of the post-war period. A silent story is a vibrant story where words repair absences, a tribute to those that history has forgotten, but that memory wants to find.

Collect

In a fluid and free writing, where the unexpected manifests itself in echo, Collect by Louise Warren reveals an intimate and poetic reflection. The story is rooted in the first gestures: reading, highlighting, cutting, pasting, so many acts which shape the writing and connect it to the collage and the quotation. Gradually, the author’s attention opens to her personal quests: an inner mythology, a fascination for the fragment, the resonances of readings and the role of dreams in creation. This journey, marked by contemplation and slowness, invites deep listening. Throughout this journey, poems are born, fragile and alive, like lichens nourishing memory and the imagination.

The fat girl who dreamed of love

Samuelle dreams of love, but an obstacle seems to stand before her: her body, which she has difficulty accepting. His relationship with his image is exacerbated by his mother’s constant criticism. In this tense context, Samuelle navigates between family conflicts, her first romantic experiences and the discovery of her sexuality. She aspires to free herself from scrutiny and to reconcile with herself. Supported by deep friendships and a defining adventure, she will learn to recognize her value beyond appearances and to take the reins of her destiny. With humor and sincerity, Nadia Tranchemontagne campaigns against fatphobia and celebrates the diversity of bodies in her writings and on her digital platforms.

The years pass slow and light

The narrators of these stories are not deluding themselves: they know that life is coming to an end and they move forward with difficulty, short of breath and lucid in the face of the inevitable. Death, always implicit, is neither feared nor mentioned. The past, for its part, is a labyrinth between the sweet innocence of childhood and the disillusionments of adulthood. Writing, although devoid of certainties, becomes a fragile refuge where the ephemeral traces of an existence are inscribed, without pretension or grandeur. With this collection, Gilles Archambault delivers a melancholy reflection on the weight of words and their capacity, however modest, to fill the voids left by the passage of time.

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Contours

With a poetic and assured pen, Ann-Élisabeth Pilote gives us a first novel which questions our relationship to the loss of bearings in a world in constant change. Éli, after years of wandering, returns to settle in the house inherited from his grandmother. One night, an inexplicable phenomenon occurs: all the stars disappear from the sky. While she searches for meaning in this sidereal void, Eli forms bonds with her neighbors, an artist and her son. Eli’s obsession with his neighbor’s work in progress grows until she suddenly dies, revealing buried secrets. This novel offers a deep reflection on emptiness, human relationships and intimate flaws.

Standing in the storm

Mathilde, a literary columnist in her forties, suddenly embarks on an altruistic approach by offering her help to Jacqueline, an elderly woman with a past full of drama. By getting to know the latter, as well as her audacious project to write about the resilience of animals, Mathilde sees her own buried wounds resurface. Little by little, an unexpected friendship develops between these two women. But will this relationship, as improbable as it is intense, manage to soothe their inner torment and allow them to move forward? Dominique Demers offers us here a touching story about the strength of human bonds and the courage to face oneself.

A face pressed against the world

A face pressed against the world and other poems offers a valuable entry into the rich and sensitive work of Hélène Dorion, a major figure in Quebec poetry. This collection brings together four books published between 1990 and 2000: A face pressed against the world, Without edge, without end of the world, The cave walls et Windows of time. Hélène Dorion’s writing explores in depth the links between the intimate and the universal, combining wonder at nature, romantic feelings and existential reflections. This volume, accompanied by a preface by Evelyne Gagnon, marks important recognition with its publication in the prestigious Poésie de Gallimard collection.

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Mary like you

Marie-Ève, administrative assistant at CHUM, works evenings and returns home, exhausted, every night at midnight. She lives on the 17th floor of a tower, just opposite the hospital, where the monotony of her days mixes with a toxic relationship with Sylvain, which exhausts her further. Between isolation, the struggle to find herself and the tragedies that shake her building – deaths, evictions – she seeks a fragile balance. During bike rides, in the twists and turns of the hospital and the cocoon of her apartment, Marie-Ève ​​shares her daily life in verse, oscillating between melancholy and humor. Disarmingly honest poetry, imbued with beauty, pain and resilience.

When does it end, always?

At the beginning of the 1950s, in a Warsaw maternity ward, Nina and Pola met: one had given birth to a girl, Ewa, the other to a boy, Adam. Their burst of laughter at this coincidence seems to promise a bright future. Despite the scars left by war, hope for a better world lights the horizon, while Stalin fades and popular uprisings awaken hope for justice and freedom. Yet this fragile paradise is quickly collapsing. The families of Nina and Pola, linked by blood and friendship, are scattered around the world – in the United States, in Israel, in Quebec. Agnès Gruda brilliantly interweaves their destinies over several generations, offering a story imbued with humanity and resilience in the face of exile.

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The capital of dreams

Heather O’Neill returns this year with the translation, signed Dominique Fortier, of her new novel, The capital of dreams. The story takes place in an imaginary war-ravaged country in Europe, where art and philosophy attempt to provide respite from the destruction. Sofia Bottom, 14, lives in the shadow of her mother, Clara, a beloved writer. As their nation is invaded, Clara entrusts Sofia with a crucial mission: to save her manuscript by transporting it out of the city aboard a train of evacuated children. But the adventure goes wrong, and Sofia, alone and terrified, loses this precious treasure. In an epic journey through forests and ruined villages, she encounters soldiers, survivors and lost children, and must make choices between survival and compassion. This dark and haunting tale once again reveals O’Neill’s unique talent for weaving magical tales, both serious and sublime.

The beauty of Cleopatra

During her first meeting with Marc Antony, Cleopatra reveals herself on a sumptuous ship, gliding majestically on the Cydnus, surrounded by dazzling colors, captivating melodies and exquisite perfumes. Its beauty, almost mythical, opens a horizon of hope and grandeur. Inspired by a scene fromAntony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare, Mustapha Fahmi offers a captivating reflection on this famous story mixing love and power. In this commentary, he explores profound questions about ethics, aesthetics and politics: how to transform your life into a work of art? What place does charisma occupy in a democracy? By summoning Nietzsche, Kant and even Botticelli, Fahmi brilliantly illuminates these timeless issues.

Laval Beach

In Laval BeachRafaële Germain marks his big return to fiction with his lively writing, tinged with humor, and his punchy dialogues. Through endearing characters, the novel addresses universal themes such as the clash of generations, old age, individualism, as well as our relationship to nature and other cultures. After a significant breakup, Laurence leaves the Plateau and settles in an old chalet bordering the Mille-Îles River, seeking solitude, but finding an unexpected community. Surrounded by her mother suffering from dementia, her daughter Mathilde and neighbors who have become friends, she discovers the improbable and warm bonds that are forged between young and old, caregivers and wanderers, in a story imbued with humanity.