Product Description
This is Francois Gravel's greatest book to date. It is a charming novel about the rise of a French-Canadian Catholic family in Quebec. In the depression, the Fillion brothers scrape together a living for their mother by taking scrap wood from the docks and selling it door-to-door as firewood. From this humble start, they develop their business: building first highchairs and selling them, then building and suplying Adirondack chairs to a local furniture store. As a market develops for their work in the years after the Second World War, they open their own furniture store, expand it and, over the course of the next thirty years, become successful merchants. Louis, the middle brother, is the leader of the family. A
Good Life is his story, as it is in many ways a parable of the rise of Quebec's Francophone middle class.
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.
François Gravel is the author of more than 25 books, four of which have been previously translated by Sheila Fischman and published by Cormorant Books. Francois has won the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature for Deux heures et demi avant Jasmine, and has been a finalist for le Prix du Journal de Montréal, the Brive-Montréal Prize, and the Alvine-Bélisle Award. François lives in Montreal and teaches at the Collège Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieau.
