An English translation can be provided on demand
An English translation can be provided on demand
Droits / Rights

Marie Hélène Poitras

Griffintown

(Griffintown)

216 pages | Mars 2013 | Couverture : Mikko Lagerstedt

12 000 copies sold!

Loaded with grit, heart, murder, and desire, Griffintown harnesses the style of a Spaghetti Western to tell the exhilarating story of the calèche drivers of Old Montreal, the city’s urban cowboys. It s a novel ulike any other — a story of sorrow and renewal, of unexpected moments of grace.

The sun rises on Griffintown after the months of snow under which the city of Montreal has been dormant. It is the dawn of the season of survival. Men and horses return to the stable. Winter has taken some of their number. Fewer are coming back. Some men, like John, pick up the reins like a bad habit. For others, past lives trail behind them, and Griffintown is their last chance. Marie comes looking for a job that will bring her closer to the horses she loves. She is not aware of the lives of desperation led by man and horse, nothing like the romantic ideal she has of them.

Movie rights optioned by Attraction Images.

Prix France-Québec
Finaliste - Prix Ringuet de l'Académie des lettres du Québec
Finaliste - Prix des lecteurs émergents de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Sélection Meilleurs romans 2012 de La Presse

Rights sold

Canada

Cormorant

France

Phébus

Italy

Nuova Frontera

Spain

Algaida

Reviews

The News

'A novel that is akin to the great westerns of Cormac McCarthy.

La Presse

'A ride in the Far West that is not to be forgotten.'

Radio Canada

'An absolutely thrilling novel!

Littérature du Québec

'A real Western, where good and evil clash as in the time of Jesse James … a great trip to a little known world.'

Librairie Vaugeois

'Full of characters imbued with sensuality and mystery. The reader will not want to leave.'

Revue Le Clap

'Surprises and seduces in both its narrative voice and stylistic brio. Marie Hélène Poitras is a writer to follow closely!'

Montreal Review of Books

'Poitras writes beautifully, realizing her world in a rich, emotional prose that invites the reader to settle in for a long, slow read. Her sensuous language evokes empathy for the horses, their riders, and ways of living that have lost their place in the city.'

Huffington Post

'There is something of a great writer in Marie Hélène Poitras.'

Marie Helene Poitras Crédit photo Charles-Olivier Michaud

Autrice

Marie Hélène Poitras

Born in 1975, Marie Hélène Poitras received the Anne-Hébert Award for her first novel Soudain le Minotaure. La mort de mignonne et autres histoires (2005) was short-listed for the Quebec Booksellers Award. In 2012, she published Griffintown, a novel inspired by the Montreal neighbourhood of the same name, winner of the France-Quebec Award and a finalist for the Ringuet Prize. La desiderata is Poitras’ third book with Alto.

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