Archives de catégorie : Fiction

THE COMPANY DAUGHTERS de Samantha Rajaram

Jana Beil, a servant in 17th-century Amsterdam, alongside her companion Sontja, signs up to be a ‘company daughter’ — a mail-order bride to settlers in the far Dutch colonial East Indies. Based on true history, these two women undertake a dangerous and deadly sea journey to the colony of Batavia — present-day Indonesia — to start a new life there as wives to the men they know nothing about.

THE COMPANY DAUGHTERS
by Samantha Rajaram
Bookouture , Fall 2020

Jana Beil has learned that life rarely provides moments of joy. Indeed, all of Amsterdam in 1616 is less concerned with happiness than with maintaining appearances. But when she begins working as a servant for the wealthy and kind Reynst family, she finds some peace and begins to secretly fall in love with Sontja, the beautiful daughter of the house. However, when Master Reynst loses his fortune through a bad investment with the VOC (the Dutch version of the East India Company), everything changes. Unable to afford her wage, the Reynsts’ let Jana go and she is back on the street again, desperately searching for work. Sontja, too, looks for ways to make enough money to get by, but when her father drinks himself to death, their house is sold to debtors, leaving both girls without a future. With no other choice, Sontja becomes a Company Daughter and sails to the colonial outpost of Batavia to marry a Dutch settler. Unable to envision a life without her, Jana also signs up for the voyage. The two embark on a lengthy, dangerous journey to Batavia, which will end with weddings to miserable old men — not the young, strapping soldiers they were promised. Despite all the hardships, Jana’s life slowly fills with wonder, beauty, and love as she sheds the resignation of her old life to finally reach out for what she truly wants.

Samantha Rajaram is a former attorney and current professor of English in the California Bay Area. She is also a Katha award-winning short story writer, having been published in national magazines such as India Currents and the U.S. Lighthouse Society Journal. This is her debut novel.

RAINFISH de Andrew Paterson

A warm and engaging story of a boy who is drawn to commit a theft to impress an older, alluringly rebellious kid. Aaron’s guilt, regret and attempts to put the situation right take him on a journey that’s unexpected, at times humorous and ultimately tragic.

RAINFISH
by Andrew Paterson
Text Publishing, July 2021 (voir catalogue)

Aaron lives with his single mother and his bookish older brother Connor in a small town with a ramshackle chook shed and an old bath full of rainfish in the backyard. Feeling left out as the younger brother, he commits a theft to impress an older rebellious kid. RAINFISH is a middle-grade novel that lets its readers explore how to cope with big feelings and emotions, with joy, happiness, regret and remorse. It subtly teaches about truth telling and the importance of knowing when to own up to things. The writing is sophisticated while remaining accessible.

Winner for the 2020 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing

Andrew Paterson is a medical doctor who was brought up and currently lives and works in tropical Far North Queensland, where RAINFISH is set. He has completed a graduate diploma in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne. This is his debut novel.

L’auteur Bryan Washington s’exprime sur l’affaire George Floyd dans le New Yorker

Dans l’article « George Floyd, Houston’s Protests, and Living Without the Benefit of the Doubt » récemment publié par le New Yorker, Bryan Washington évoque ses souvenirs du quartier de Third Ward à Houston au Texas, où a grandi George Floyd, et décrit ses impressions après avoir participé à une manifestation en sa mémoire la semaine dernière. Il fait part de ses réflexions sur ce que le mouvement de soutien à George Floyd signifie pour la société américaine.

Bryan Washington est l’auteur du recueil de nouvelles LOT, paru l’an dernier chez Riverhead Books aux Etats-Unis, et du roman MEMORIAL, à paraître en octobre prochain. Il a remporté de nombreux prix, dont le Dylan Thomas Prize, le Ernest J. Gaines Award, le O’Henry Short Story Prize, et le Lambda Literary Award annoncé le mois dernier. Il fait aussi partie des jeunes auteurs sélectionnés par la National Book Foundation en 2019 (« 5 Under 35 »). Les droits de langue française des deux ouvrages sont toujours disponibles.

ONE TIME de Sharon Creech

From Sharon Creech, Newbery Medal winner and New York Times bestselling author, comes a powerful coming-of-age story of a girl who discovers the endless possibilities her future may hold, with help from a brilliant teacher and a boy with a generous smile.

ONE TIME
by Sharon Creech
HarperCollins, September 2020

Gina Filomena has been told she has an overactive imagination. With her bright clothing and artistic spirit, she’s always felt different from the other kids in her class. That is, until she meets her new neighbor, a mysterious boy named Antonio with a wide, welcoming smile. Add in a creative new teacher, Miss Lightstone, and a world of possibilities opens up for Gina, Antonio, and their classmates. With the help of Antonio and Miss Lightstone, will Gina find the answers to the questions Who am I? and Who do I want to be?

Sharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler. Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine, “lured there by our grandchildren,” Creech says.

TWELVE de Myriam J. A. Chancy

A novel about crisis — in this case the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 — which explores the way people find ways to cope even in the darkest of times. The messages in Myriam’s novel — those of hope, courage, resilience, and the importance of community — are ideas that will resonate with readers at this time and far into the future.

TWELVE
by Myriam J. A. Chancy
Tin House, publication date TBD

Embracing the ambition of Marlon James’ and the vivid storytelling of Bernadine Evaristo, TWELVE skillfully interweaves the lives of a group of people, all linked through friendships and family, before, during and after the catastrophic Haitian earthquake. Chancy reveals the inner lives of each of her characters, drawing the reader into their hopes, dreams and regrets, and recounts how each of them do — or do not — survive. TWELVE is a masterful literary portrait of a group of citizens in Port au Prince as they struggle in the face of disaster.

« Myriam Chancy has written a gorgeous and compulsively readable, page-turner in the most haunting and stunning prose. This novel is exactly what we need during this time of uncertainty and crisis. Twelve’s characters reveal to us how to bend and not break when facing loss, grief, and displacement. If you love the works of Jesmyn Ward, Edwidge Danticat and J.M Coetzee, this is the book for you! Absolutely breathtaking! » —Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana, nominated for the 2020 Women’s Prize

Myriam J. A. Chancy is a Haitian-Canadian-American writer and a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She is currently the Hartley Burr Alexander Chair of Humanities at Scripps College in California. As a writer, she focuses on Haitian culture, gender, class, sexuality, and Caribbean women’s studies. Her novels have won several awards, including the prestigious Guyana Prize in Literature Caribbean Award.