Happy Book Birthday to As the Andes Disappeared by Caroline Dawson translated by Anita Anand!
Today, we are excited to announce the release of As the Andes Disappeared by Caroline Dawson translated by Anita Anand!
Happy Book Birthday to As the Andes Disappeared by Caroline Dawson, beautifully translated by Anita Anand! Anand is also the author of the award-winning novel, A Convergence of Solitudes.
This autobiographical debut novel was a runaway success in Quebec, making Dawson a household name. It was a finalist for le Combat national des livres de Radio-Canada, French Canada’s version of Canada Reads. It was also nominated for several literary prizes and won the Prix littéraire des Collégiens and the Prix AIEQ.
Seven-year-old Caroline is too young to grasp the political motivations that fuelled her parents’ decision to flee Pinochet’s Chile, so she describes the only world she’s known until then: the way her family’s house resisted every earthquake, the way the ocean’s winds slipped into their home even when the windows were shut, the way she played with kites made from old newspapers, and, of course, the ever-present Andes.
Highly attuned to her parents’ sacrifices and how they set her apart from her peers, Dawson charts the family’s gradual socio-economic climb and her rise to become an educated intellectual.
Advance Praise for As the Andes Disappeared
“In As the Andes Disappeared, Caroline Dawson achieves a rare feat—the expression of exile as experienced by a child. Poignantly, vividly, through Anita Anand’s perfect translation of Dawson’s elegant and easy-flowing prose, we are drawn into the world of a girl plucked out of Chile and its overwhelming cordillera, and dropped into the emotional, physical, and linguistic space of 1980s Québec. Memory, whether inherited, remembered, lived, or made anew, is at the core of this utterly human and beautifully written novel. An essential addition to Canadian culture.”
—Beatriz Hausner, author of She Who Lies Above and Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart
“This beautiful, poetic book vividly captures an immigrant experience that drew me in from the very first sentence to the very last. As an immigrant myself, I saw my own experiences mirrored similarly. I’m so grateful to have read this and I hope you will, too.”
—Hasan Namir, author of Umbilical Cord and War/Torn
“The power of this largely autobiographical novel lies in its refusal to let anger give rise to gratitude. Nor is gratitude permitted to soften the rage of knowing that the comfort of the rich continues to be built with the egregiously paid labour of those who cannot push back.”
—Le Devoir
“There are books that make us better people, and Dawson’s is among them.”
—Michel Marc Bouchard, le Combat national des livres de Radio-Canada
“When exactly does a child from Chile, an immigrant to Québec, cease including the Andes in the background of her drawings? What parts of us are erased as we construct our identities? With sensitivity, humour and engaging lucidity, Dawson’s autobiographical novel shows us that there are many lived realities and that it is essential to be attentive to everyone’s experience. To read As the Andes Disappeared is to acquire tools to understand the Other and to confront one’s own perceptions of society.”
—Marc-Étienne Brien, Librairie Biblairie GGC
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That’s all for now, dear reader. Please join us again in wishing a very Happy Book Birthday to As the Andes Disappeared by Caroline Dawson, translated by Anita Anand. Available now from our online shop or from your local independent bookstore. Happy reading!
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