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Stand By Me meets Knausgaard: an explosive 1980s coming-of-age story in a hardscrabble Quebec mining town.
Thetford Mines, an asbestos-mining town in Quebec, summer 1986. Nine-year-old Steve Dubois and ten-year-old Poulie revel in the joys of friendship, roaming free on their BMXs, building forts, reading Tintins, filling their disaster scrapbook, sharing escapades on the high slag heaps and landscapes that are part forest, part lunar. The two inseparable friends spend their days in idleness and innocence. But 1986 is a year rife with tragedy, from the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion to one closer to home, one that will rock Thetford Mines, and Steve, to the core. Five years later, we find Steve consumed by his obsession: to recreate his vanished paradise.
Wielding precise and sensual language, Sébastien Dulude tells the story of a fragile and volatile youth in a working-class dream that is losing momentum.
Winner, Quebec Booksellers’ Award, Best Novel (Prix des libraires, 2024)
Finalist, Quebec College Students’ Award (Prix des collégiens, 2024)
Finalist, First Novel Award (Prix premières plumes, 2024)
‘A novel of great subtlety and sensitivity.’ – Maylis de Kerangal, author of Eastbound
‘In the land of asbestos mines, two boys build a paradise bound to be lost. A sensitive, powerful debut novel … that captures the dark side of the Canadian dream.’ – L’Humanité
‘There are the facts, and the plot, but it is the writing – at first unsettling, and then unforgettable – that sticks in the reader’s mind.’ – Libération
‘A dazzling debut novel. A moving new voice. A revelation.’ – La Grande Librairie
‘A novel of incendiary yet tender beauty, unforgettable.’ – Gabrielle Napoli
‘The exploration of tensions and binaries in the plot is mirrored in the form, with two sections for two years in the protagonist’s life – 1986 and 1991 – and nonlinear narration with flashbacks and flashforwards constantly casting events in new light … finely honed, rich language and a trueness in the depiction of the sensations and emotions at the heart of the narrative.’ – Le Devoir
‘Free of embellishment … not a celebration of Thetford Mines, but [a novel that] manages to juxtapose all the pain and euphoria of a lonely youth in the heart of a milieu largely overlooked by Quebec literature.’ – La Presse
‘A narrative style that perfectly marries delicacy and intensity to remind us that we never stop carrying within us the child we once were.’ – Addict-culture
‘Sensitive and powerful, with a delightful blend of ingredients from our imagination of the 1980s and 1990s and prose rich in impulses that don’t say everything, that don’t reveal everything. I put it down feeling stunned by this solid work of fiction that addresses the construction of identity, violence suffered or imposed, and the difficulties of building a world of one’s own.’ – Les Libraires
‘At once harsh, dealing with depression and violence in a hostile environment, and very sweet, thanks to the intensity and purity of the bond between two children discovering life.’ – La Presse
Born in Montréal in 1976, Sébastien Dulude grew up in the Mitchell neighbourhood of Thetford Mines from the age of six to sixteen. A writer and publisher, he is the author of three poetry collections and an essay about typography and poetry. Asbestos is his first novel.
Pablo Strauss’s recent translations of fiction from Quebec include Horsefly, What I Know About You, The Second Substance, Aquariums, Fauna, and The Dishwasher. He is a three-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for translation. Pablo grew up in Victoria, BC, and has lived in Quebec City for two decades.