THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED: We regret to inform you that this event has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control. We apologize for any disappointment and inconvenience caused by this cancellation. 

Join us as we explore the influential books and writers who defined genres and captivated readers for decades. Each session of The Re-Read features a contemporary writer discussing a favourite book or author, to offer their insight as an author and share their joy as a reader.

In this session, Canadian author Stéfanie Clermont will delve into the 1965 French-Canadian classic A Season in the Life of Emmanuel by Marie-Claire Blais. Recognized as a masterwork of fiction, the award-winning novel was eventually translated into over a dozen languages. Told through the perspective of young Emmanuel, the last of 16 children born to a poor Quebecois family, the novel traverses two landscapes: the frigid isolation of rural Quebec, and the imaginative inner world of the characters. Blais paints a heartbreaking, powerful picture of the realities of living impoverished in church-dominated Quebec, while brazenly examining the ramifications of conservative patriarchy and Catholicism. Clermont, whose debut novel won the prestigious Ringuet Prize of the Quebec Academy of Arts and Letters, will speak to the pioneering importance A Season in the Life of Emmanuel had on Canadian fiction.

Interviewed by Niyosha Keyzad.

This event is presented in partnership with Writers’ Trust Canada.