The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange

The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange is the story of Pauline and her world, a world in which people turn to violence or sink into quiet despair, a world as damned as that of Baudelaire or Jean Genet. In it we see Pauline and all the members of her family, her schoolmates, teachers, and friends - driven by tempestuous individual imperatives and the social deprivation they encounter - portrayed with a reality that neither poetry nor dreams nor Pauline's fantasies can weaken. This extraordinary story is characterized by paradoxes and insights, and the harshness of Pauline's world is a blend of social, religious, and moral pressures that create the underlying texture of satire, fantasy, energy, and lyricism which makes this book a great and memorable read.

Marie-Claire Blais is one of Canada's best-known authors whose books include Deaf to the City, Thunder and Light, and Wintersleep. She has received a wide variety of national and international prizes, including Prix France-Canada, Prix Athanase-David, Governor General's Literary Award, the W. O. Mitchell Literary Prize, Prix Médicis, Prix d'Italie, and Prix Prince Pierre de Monaco. She lives in Key West, Florida. Derek Coltman has worked as a translator for more than five decades and has translated many of the most recognized contemporary French authors. David Lobdell has worked as a translator of French into English since the 1970s. Barry Callaghan is a journalist, a poet, a fiction writer, and an anthologist. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.