A man loses his daughter while swimming one summer. This little gem of a novella–sad and beautiful and spellbinding all at once–is the tale of how he strives to be reunited with her again, whether back home on dry land or thousands of miles underwater. Racked with guilt and doubt, he lingers over her memory, refusing to let her go. He imagines and reimagines the moment she slipped away from him as he searches for her behind every rock, in every bush, in every wave.
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Short, powerful
Sad but beautiful
Finalist, John Glassco Translation Prize
Finalist, ReLit Awards
Written by Charles Quimper
Translated by Guil Lefebvre
80 pages • 978-1-77186-155-7 • 8″ x 5″
FICTION / Literary
FICTION / Magical Realism
$16.95
AVAILABLE IN ALL FORMATS
Publication Date: November 1, 2018
PRAISE FOR IN EVERY WAVE
“If I had a book of the year, this is it.” (Stuart John Allen, Winstonsdad’s Blog)
“Piercing and compact, Charles Quimper’s novella In Every Wave follows a grief-consumed father through a vortex of regret and fragmented fantasies. Here, sorrow is an ocean, and lost possibilities lurk behind every swell […] Every phrase is a foghorn, and every utterance rasps. Almost too tender to touch…” (★★★★★, Foreword Reviews)
“one of the most touching books I have ever read […] a real gem” (Stuart John Allen, Winstonsdad’s Blog)
“a devastating and stunning read […] Quite unforgettable.” (Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings Blog)
“a picture of tenderness and a true-to-life image of the gaping hole left in the heart by loss” (World Literature Today)
“In Every Wave is beautiful, poetic, and profound” (Naomi MacKinnon, Consumed By Ink)
“This lyrical novella takes the reader into the heart of a parent’s unbearable sorrow, examining the impact of his loss without offering any particular comfort. Rather, with equal measures of tenderness and melancholy, the finely honed narrative holds close to the fine line between metaphor and madness. A remarkable achievement for a first novelist and, in his delicate treatment, for first-time translator Guil Lefebvre. […] Poetic and claustrophobic, Quimper has created a completely subjective, uncompromising narrative…” (Joseph Schreiber, The temz Review)
“a short, heart-rending piece that lingers in the mind long after the last page is turned. […] well worth reading” (Tony Malone, Tony’s Reading List)
“a spare, haunting, poetic exploration that touches the depths of parental loss and grief […] achingly beautiful, strangely fantastic, and keenly disturbing.” (Joseph Schreiber, The temz Review)
“Akin to an epic poem […] an extremely powerful soliloquy that addresses every parent’s fear, losing a child, in a poetic and powerful manner. […] I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this debut work appear on the Best Translated Book Awards longlist and will be eagerly awaiting Charles Quimper’s later writings.” (Tony Messenger, Messenger’s Booker (and more) Blog)
“a multi-layered tale of unbearable sadness […] impressive. ★★★★★” (James Fisher, Miramichi Reader)
“The book is beautifully written, in a translation by Guil Lefebvre that is exemplary.” (Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers LitBlog)
“Quimper takes us to places most of us hope never to go in real life, creating a work of art out of imagined catastrophe. […] QC Fiction continue to produce an impressively varied and consistently interesting sequence of prose fiction titles.” (Simon Lavery, Tredynas Days)
“Quimper’s sparse plotting and reliance on representing the emotional landscape of grief creates a dream-like effect in which time seems to stand still.” (Danielle Barkley, Montreal Review of Books)
“Ink and tears, tides and fish: attention and neglect wrestle readers to the page. […] The syntax is uncomplicated and the language is simple: the only complicated thing about the story is how one puts loss into words, how one trusts them to contain what cannot be recaptured.” (Buried in Print blog)
“In Every Wave is a shimmering jewel – set against the blackest of black backgrounds.” (Ingrids boktankar blog, Sweden)
“A new literary voice of remarkable density.” (Le Devoir)
“A first novel, filled with tenderness, infinite sadness, and absolute beauty.” (Les Libraires)
“There is a certain poetry and beauty in Marée montante, despite the infinite sadness that inhabits it […] The story succeeds in examining the worst of all agonies, with humility and empathy, while facing them head on. It takes skill to tackle such a subject without becoming melodramatic, and Quimper rises to the challenge.” (La Presse)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Quebec City in 1977, Charles Quimper is a former bookseller and has contributed to a number of magazines. Les Libraires magazine recognized the “tenderness, infinite sadness, and absolute beauty” of his debut novel, while Le Devoir hailed “a new literary voice of remarkable density.”
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Guil Lefebvre is a full-time translator based in Quebec City. In Every Wave is his first novel-length translation.
OUR COMMITMENT TO DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY
✓ A new literary voice brought into English by a first-time translator
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