The Sound of Living Things - Softcover

Turcotte, Elise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0889104379 ISBN 13: 9780889104372

Publisher: Coach House Pr, 1993

Synopsis

Albanie is 30 years old, her daughter Maria is four, and the two are on their own. But luckily, Albanie's work at the local library allows them the rare freedom to pursue a life of the imagination. Out of the passing of days, the flow of words, the aspects of life they explore together, a love story unlike any other is woven between Albanie and Maria, one that enables them to feel and hear the "sound of living things" which connects them to the world and its images, even if "images don't say everything about the things that happen." Maria declares that solace must be found for everything, for living beings and for objects, for varieties of love, even for speech itself, which tries to express what is inexpressible about life, "a stolen thing." In the poignant details of daily life, mother and daughter rediscover their capacity for joy.

About this title

About the Author:

Sheila Fischman is one of Canada’s premier translators. She has translated over 125 books and for her work was awarded the Molson Prize in 2008. In 2007, her translation of Jacques Poulin’s novel My Sister’s Blue Eyes was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation, and in 2006, her translation of Pascale Quiviger’s novel The Perfect Circle was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

From Publishers Weekly:

Albanie, a young divorcee, delights in her three-year-old daughter to the extent that she shuns adult company. She clings more and more tightly as she listens to news stories of earthquakes and wars or views newspaper pictures of homeless children. These topical insertions offer wonderful opportunities for imagery. After seeing pictures of Hurricane Hugo, for example: "It's raining. Maria is rebuilding the houses that have been destroyed." Albanie, the protagonist, writes in the first person, incorporating her own perceptions and the words of others as they're filtered through her. This brief novel thus comes so close to diary form that it's often difficult to remember it's fiction. The absence of immediate interaction and dialogue can become trying; sections that are sparse on imagery assume didactic qualities. However, Maria's precocity, which convinces when seen through her mother's eyes, might not be as believable if she spoke and acted on her own behalf. Depending upon the reader's preferences, this first novel by Turcotte, a young Quebecoise writer, will either be considered a rare poetic gem or become so frustrating that it's abandoned after 30 pages.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Coach House Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0889104379
• ISBN 13: 9780889104372
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 153