Quebec literature | To be continued until spring

Books that appear from January to April are the first salvo of publications that peak in the fall. What will 2025 be like? Which books will lodge in the hearts of readers? It’s impossible to guess, but it’s okay to be curious and have expectations. A quick overview of some upcoming titles over the next four months.

January

The year begins with the return of Michael Delisle who, with Widow thing (Boréal), will take us to a country under a totalitarian regime, where we must either do our military service or become an executioner for a day, and this last option will change the destiny of the narrator. À La Peuplade, a first novel by Alexandra Boilard-Lefebvre, A silent story, presents itself as a granddaughter’s investigation into her missing grandmother. At Mémoire d’encrier, Katia Belkhodja offers a family saga from Algeria to Quebec with The unearthedwhile Henry Kenol writes a first novel on the phenomenon of gangs and slums in Haiti with The despair of angels. Finally, at Quartz, an original collective project: Sacrifice zonesunder the direction of Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Véronique Côté, Isabelle Fortin-Rondeau, Steve Gagnon and Jennifer Ricard-Turcotte, where we return to the fight of Mothers at the front for air quality in Rouyn-Noranda .

FEBRUARY

Readers will be happy to find Louise Dupré with The man with the truck (Heliotrope), in which she looks at the mysterious figure of her father, ten years after having tackled the story of her mother in the much celebrated The multicolored album. We will also reconnect with Marie-Sissi Labrèche, who publishes A novel in the oven at Leméac, where she deals with the mental load of the writer. “How can you remain a creative individual when you are alone in keeping your house and family at arm’s length? ”, that is the question. Still at Leméac, The right huntby Emmanuel Aquin, tells the singular destiny of Donald Morrison, a popular hero of Lac-Mégantic. On the personal story side, Tristan Demers, the creator of Gargouille, will explain in Act like a grown-up (Free Expression) the difficult relationship he had with his family and the not-so-obvious status of a child star. At Stanké, a first novel in dystopian form where the stars go out arouses curiosity, Contours by Ann-Elizabeth Pilote, while at Hamac, How to transform your ruins into eye shadows, by Catherine Côté, is a collection of poetry disguised as a survival guide that makes fun of personal growth books. Two essays also promise to attract attention: The bad days will endby Samuel Mercier (at Lux) who, in a “tribute to the undesirables”, wants to recall the political force of joy, and Blinding whitenessby Denis Ellis Béchard (at Écosociété), where we can read his thoughts on racism.

Mars

It will be a big month for fiction in March, with undoubtedly highly anticipated titles like La dècheby Akim Gagnon (at La Mèche), or Post syrupby Francis Ouellette (at VLB publisher). The third novel by Akim Gagnon, who delighted us with The cigar on the edge of the lips et Granby in the simple pastthis time addresses his relationship with money by recounting his last expenses before bankruptcy, while Francis Ouellette, revealed by Fancy Molasses which revealed to us characters from the Centre-Sud district, is particularly interested in the existence of one of them, Frigo, the “luminous robineux”. In the same vein, Antonio Pizzaby Francis Juteau (from Hamac), features a pizza delivery man in the Montreal winter, who at the same time struggles with his addiction to porn.

At Alto, we’re waiting for Heather O’Neill’s new novel, The capital of dreamswhere it will transport us to a small fictional country in Europe, the Élysée, governed by poets, philosophers and fairies, which will be attacked by “The Enemy”. At Quebec America, we will have Standing in the stormby Dominique Demers who, it is said, returns to the dramatic genre with the story of a friendship between an elderly lady and a literary journalist, as well as From the belly of the mountainsby Fanie Demeule, which is announced as a novel by fantasy. My father’s open mouth, by Harry Horace (pseudonym of Sophie Bélair Clément, in Le Quartanier), mixes the last words of a father with the technical details of his cremation. Finally, When does it end, always? by Agnès Gruda (at Boréal), begins in the maternity ward of a hospital in Warsaw, then follows the destinies of around twenty characters over five generations and three continents.

Avril

In April, we don’t uncover ourselves by a thread, but we continue to warm our minds by reading with Sugar time, by Martine Desjardins (Alto), a new fantastic story that flirts with folk horrorin which a family produces a maple syrup with special properties. Another spring surprise: Petite nature by Perrine Leblanc (The White Man, People of the North), at Marchand de Feuilles, presented as a grimoire and survival guide which will be, it is said, his most personal book. At Druide, we will be entitled to the 22^e investigation by Maud Graham with The gaze of othersby Chrystine Brouillet, while Rafaële Germain returns to us with Laval Beach (Free Expression), in which a woman leaves the Plateau Mont-Royal for a chalet near the Mille Îles River where she will build an intergenerational community. Headed for nothingby JP Chabot, in Quartanier, is intended to be the continuation of Journey to the Secret Garden Villa which was very popular last year, with the story of a road trip to Louisiana taken in 2018, but in an America where Trump was re-elected. Finally, we are curious to read Become a fascist (Lux), the new satirical essay by editor Mark Fortier which recounts his supposed conversion to the unstoppable forces of the right, and we will wait She, Ulyssesthe new poetic offering from the great Denise Desautels, at Noroît.