The Neptune Room by Bertrand Laverdure, Translated by Oana Avasilichioaei
The Neptune Room by Bertrand Laverdure, Translated by Oana Avasilichioaei
Finalist for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation
Literature in Translation Series
Literary Fiction
Publication Date: August 18, 2020
213 pages
8 x 5.25 inches
Paperback
ISBN 9781771665810
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Trade Paperback $20.00 (In stock) |
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Pdf $14.99 (In stock) |
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Epub $14.99 (In stock) |
Sandrine’s father is dead, and her mother has vanished into her grief. Alone and suffering from an incurable disease, the eleven-year-old girl finds companionship in her doctor, Tiresias, who morphologically changes sex in unpredictable ways (and seemingly without anyone noticing). A transformational tale about the mysteries of identity and the power dynamics that surround it, The Neptune Room pieces together life’s terrible but tender metamorphosis, opening a door onto a universe of beauty, mourning, and renewal.
Praise for The Neptune Room:
“Wonderful writing, images that ring like a morning bell. It’s difficult to part with The Neptune Room. We want to return to it, linger in its gravity and silence. A meditative book on the great adventure of the present, being, time, the limitations of medicine, and the heroism of those accompanying the young who leave before exploring the borders of the adult world. A rare book.” —Yvon Paré, Littérature du Québec
Press Coverage:
“The Neptune Room is a frenetic read, bursting with cultural, political, and philosophical references.” —Dean Garlick, Montreal Review of Books
Most Anticipated: Spring 2020 Fiction Preview —49th Shelf
2020 Spring Preview: In Translation —Quill and Quire
“The beautiful prose elegantly carries the pain while imbuing each word with significance; it’s something so rarely found today. Put this in an English Undergrad class, and you’ll have students analyzing the work for months, reeling with ideas until the end of the semester.” —Cole Bisson, The Whitewall Review
2020 GGs Books Finalists for Translation —49th Shelf
The finalists for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Award for translation —CBC Books
The best books of 2020: Meet the finalists of the latest GGBooks competition —Governor General’s Literary Awards
Montreal-based Bertrand Laverdure is a poet, novelist, and literary performer. He has published six novels, including Universal Bureau of Copyrights (2014) and Readopolis (2017, winner, Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation), both translated by Oana Avasilichioaei. His many poetry publications include Cascadeuse (2013) and Sept et demi (2007). He was awarded the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts (1999) and the Rina Lasnier Prize for Poetry (2003) for Les forêts (2000). He was a literary chronicler on MAtv and CIBL Radio, and Poet Laureate of Montreal from 2015–2017.
Montreal-based poet, translator, and artist Oana Avasilichioaei has published six poetry collections, including Eight Track (2019), Limbinal (2015), and We, Beasts (2012, winner, A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry). She has translated eight books of poetry and prose, including Catherine Lalonde’s The Faerie Devouring (2018, winner, Cole Foundation Prize for Translation), Bertrand Laverdure’s Readopolis (2017, winner, Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation), and Daniel Canty’s Wigrum (2013).
