The amazing Dominique Demers, author of more than 70 works for young people and adults, offers an astonishing sequel to her autofiction this winter My crazy love, which details the incredible adventures that come with buying a chalet in the Laurentians. This time his admirers return to the world of this beloved but rickety chalet, which requires many unforeseen renovations. In As long as there are birdsThey find Dominique crippled after a serious bicycle accident… and completely in love with a handsome German.
Dominique Demers offers his readers a wonderful autofiction: “As long as there are birds”. The novel is published by QuébecAmérique. © Editions Quebec America
While we were filming her on her bike for a documentary, Dominique fell. What follows is a concussion, knocked out teeth, serious injuries, pain and a lot of rehabilitation effort. As she begins to train again as best she can, she meets a German who completely capsizes her. Boom! Lightning!
Dominique Demers, a sensitive, lively writer with a remarkable sense of comedy, tells amazing adventures, sometimes dramatic, sometimes crazy, in this new autofiction, which can be easily read independently of Mon fol amour.
But don't be discouraged: read both books to fully immerse yourself in Dominique's tragicomic world: her lakeside cottage, her little dog who needs attention, her misadventures with unreliable entrepreneurs and encounters that make his heart beat faster .
A lot of autofiction
“I really enjoyed writing As Long as There Are Birds. It’s a big enlightenment in my life,” she said in an interview. “It’s very close to my crazy love. There is a lot of autofiction. The House of the Little Pigs is real and it is very important in my life. I made a mistake when purchasing. I had to blow up explosives and everything… but I love him with love.”
What she describes in “As Long as There Are Birds” is true…for the most part. And beautiful August really exists, in the flesh. “He knows I wrote about our relationship. We keep in touch.”
Love has all kinds of faces and all kinds of learning are associated with it. We may regret it sometimes, but some relationships are worth living. “Any great love at first sight, where we respect each other even when there are heartaches or times when we are estranged, is beautiful.”
Like in the movies
Dominique Demers truly fell in love at first sight, a surprising and unexpected encounter. “I was actually crossing the street on my bike, helmet on and drenched in sweat. And lightning struck in the middle of the street. Like in a movie… but it's real! I say to myself: I can’t even invent that!”
However, Dominique is a little afraid to write about neighbors or relatives. “If the person feels uncomfortable or I invade their privacy, I tell myself that they are not writers. They didn't choose that. So I delve into fiction.”
So she can recreate anything in her own way. “It’s actually just a creative limitation. Why not? We use what is inspiring and obvious. We have to invent the rest, so it’s perfect.”
Dominique Demers is a postdoctoral researcher and has published more than 70 works for young people and adults. Pierre-Paul Poulin / Le Journal de Montréal / Agence QMI
Create chemistry
With “As Long as There Will Be Birds,” the author wants, as the title suggests, to celebrate life, “trials and magic combined,” she says. “There are small, meaningless things that bring joy or sorrow.”
“There are accidents and lightning strikes. Maybe everything will even out in the end or there will be such chemistry that I want to celebrate life. For me, books exist to change the world in many ways.”
As long as there are birds
Dominique Demers
Editions Quebec America
320 pages
- Dominique Demers has written more than 70 works of fiction for children, young people and adults.
- We owe him, among other things, the series Charlotte and the test Write to make anything happen.
- She wrote the great novel The albatross and the tit And Chronicle of a common cancer – My life with Igor.
- She has a postdoctoral degree in literature.
- She was a journalist at NewsTeacher at the University of Quebec in Montreal, literary critic, feature film screenwriter and storyteller on Radio-Canada television.
“Shortly after the friends left, the sky filled with threatening storms. The wind roars like a rabid wolf, tearing apart my small house with barely insulated, almost cardboard walls. The windows tremble and the spruce boards of the facade bend under the attack. I forced myself to clean up the kitchen and living room before checking my computer. My heart stupidly beats faster as I open my email inbox.
He wrote me! Like every day since he left.”
– Dominique Demers, As Long as There Are Birds, Éditions QuébecAmérique
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