Gaspé author Line Richard won the Robert Cliche Prize for the manuscript of her first novel on Tuesday. the rumor of the surf, News she’s been keeping secret for more than 14 months.
“It’s something I’ve carried with me for a very long time. Just announcing it is a first step, but I’m really looking forward to it [au lancement]she said in an interview with QMI Agency earlier this week.
In this first novel, partly set in Gaspésie, the author talks about resilience and how injuries change people. In the background, the reality of this region is also represented through the experiences of its main characters, Martin and Léa, a father and his daughter.
First, the two leave Montreal for the Haida Gwaii Islands in British Columbia, taking Suzanne’s ashes with them. Martin wants to find a final resting place for his daughter’s mother and hopes that the long journey will help Léa survive this tragedy.
It is also the character Suzanne, who takes her own life at the beginning of the story, that forms the origin of this novel, according to the author.
“In the fall of 2016, I went to a cafe in Montreal with a friend and there was a concert, a young woman was singing the song “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen, and that inspired me to have this character, a singer, ‘She’s nervous and ends up getting lost in her dreams,” she explained. The reference to Cohen and his song can also be found at the beginning of the story, in the dedication and in the opening lines of the book.
The inspiration then spread in all directions and a mosaic of ideas emerged.
It’s not an autobiographical work, Line Richard said. “The death of someone close to me or the death of my mother didn’t affect me when I was young, but I know people who did and it affected me a lot.” To better understand that feeling, I wanted to translate into a novel. It was also part of my approach,” she argued.
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The territory as the main character
Originally from Gaspésie and now working as a guide and interpreter on Île Bonaventure, the author describes the region with great humanity, thus approaching the literary genre of writing about nature, that is, to unite the characters and the territories.
“It seemed like a good way for me to express the resilience of my characters, because it’s a coastal environment that’s constantly being eroded and weathered, but the landscape is changing in other ways.” For me, despite the fact that the Grief tears a part of them away from them, they build themselves up again and don’t let themselves go down,” she said.
“Saint-André-sur-Mer is actually an amalgamation of several villages in Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie, which to me could be any village beginning with ‘Saint-‘, a somewhat anonymous place,” said the author. It was made clear that this choice was not insignificant.
“In the second part of the novel, my characters will take refuge. “Martin is becoming the ‘convenience store guy’ that allows him to escape his injury,” she added.
Line Richard will officially accept the Robert Cliche Prize at its launch at the Librairie Paulines on Saturday.
The latter already started writing a second novel last year. This new book will be set in the same region from which she draws her inspiration, but this time it will focus on Murdochville, a 1980s mining town swept away by snowstorms, more specifically the town where she was born.
The backwash rumor will hit bookstores this Wednesday.