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  Ilû. The Man from Nowhere
  Ilû

  Pierre Barthe

  * Lauréat du Prix de la relève Archambault 2010

  * Prix de la relève Archambault 2010 award winner
  
  Forty thousand years ago, a group of nomads from the True-Men Clan, living in a land now engulfed in the Tchoukotka and Bering seas, take in a wounded and unconscious man. He has lost his memory and so they name him Ilû-N'Tall, The Man from Nowhere. To be accepted by his adopted people, Ilû must overcome their ancestral fears and prejudices and his anxiety about his quest for his true identity.
  
  Pierre Barthe tells the adventures of a man who leads an expedition to what will be known as America.  The author depicts man in his most basic, prehistoric state, as opposed to modern man clinging to technological progress and comfort. He writes about love, honor, and accomplishment and highlights the ancient skills that bring about our
  Modern world.

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  Enemy Brothers
  Frères ennemis

  Jean Mohsen Fahmy

  * Finaliste au Prix Trillium 2010
  
  * Finaliste au Prix du livre d'Ottawa 2010

  1914. The First World War breaks out. Europe is torn apart and Canada is dragged into the conflict. In Montreal, twin brothers who have shared a close bond since childhood are about to have that bond tested.
  
  Armand, whose involvement in the protests against conscription and participation in the “Empire's War” has caught the attention of Henri Bourassa, rockets up the career ladder at the newspaper Le Devoir. Lionel has chosen to join the army with the French-Canadian 22^nd Battalion. The brothers' harmonious relationship will be brought to an end by Justine, a young woman they befriend on the streets of Montreal who comes between them, and by Armand's decision not to go to war.
  
  The chapters of the novel move back and forth between the lives of the two young men; from the demonstrations against conscription in Montreal to the muddy and squalid trenches of a Europe afflicted by the atrocities of the war. The brothers' strained relationship parallels the emergence of a new Quebec out of historical upheaval.

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  Two Circles
  Deux cercles

  Ryad Assani-Razaki

  * Lauréat du Prix Trillium 2010
  
  * Trillium Book Award Winner 2010

  This first collection of short stories by Ryad Assani-Razaki, a young author of surprising maturity, addresses themes of discrimination and exclusion. Each of the stories in Deux cercles captures a moment in an individual life when one faces the difficulties and frustrations of immigration.
  
  All strangers in foreign lands, these characters struggle to communicate and to belong in their adopted homes. One man experiences the mundane difficulties of placing an order in a fast-food restaurant while attempting to satisfy his son's longing for a happy-meal toy. Another returns home after spending ten years in the West, only to be rejected by the woman he left behind. Another character seeks to shed his former identity, but is haunted by the memory of the woman he once loved...
  
  In a world that is more and more like a global village, we have to learn to live with our differences, our beliefs and our prejudices... When social, cultural and religious circles meet, when our inner circles come into contact with those of others, particularly when the latter are foreigners, what problems arise in everyday life? Are instability and confrontation inevitable?

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  Appearance into the World
  L'arrivée au monde

  Carole Massé

  Three children. A tyrannical father. An absent mother. A story about innocence, revenge and rebirth through a tortuous path.
  
  “I live in a modern Tower of Babel. The languages spoken by its inhabitants remind me of all these places that still need to be discovered.
  My flat looks like an office, so clean, so white, so anonymous.
  I’m an attractive woman who lives a successful life.
  At night, I dream that I get up, run to the door, and open it… onto a brick wall.
  On the other side are journeys out of reality, beyond what’s visible. 
  I occupy the space that has been allotted to me: a small, unique, essential piece to complete a jigsaw.
  I have finally arrived in this world because I’m complete.”

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  The Walls
  Les murs

  Olivia Tapiero

  * Lauréate du Prix Robert-Cliche du premier roman
  * Personnalité de la semaine La Presse
  * Femme de l'année Elle Québec
  * Finaliste au Prix Senghor premiers romans francophones et francophiles 2010

  * Robert-Cliche award winner for the first novel
  
  From the very first page, the reader is drawn in to The Walls and is not released until the end. Olivia Tapiero’s first novel immediately sets the scene: a teenage girl has once again tried to commit suicide. In a hyper-realistic style devoid of cliché, she talks about her intense distaste for life. We accompany the young girl as she is transferred from one hospital to the next where the prevailing lack of warmth and cold white walls act as external manifestations of her inner state. Her disgust for all things corporeal reflects her longing to escape from her body and leave this world behind. The girl’s extreme apathy is moving and-although not the author’s primary intention-awakens the reader to a world which is utterly foreign to most of us. After exhaustive research into the topic of suicide, Tapiero has crafted an unsettling story which will have you on the edge of your seat until the final page is turned

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  A Brief Treatise on Eroticism
  Petit traité de l'érotisme

  Michel Dorais

  Well-known in Quebec and in France for his books on the sociology of sexuality, the author provides a synthesis of his research in this easy-to-read book.
  
  Eroticism may be as old as the world itself yet it remains enigmatic. Although many writers, painters, sculptors, filmmakers have celebrated eroticism, very few have looked closely at its nature or mechanics. Michel Dorais offers such insight in his Petit traité de l’érotisme.
  
  Sexual attraction is one of the most complex and misunderstood reactions. Desire is not constant. A host of conditions must be met to achieve sexual arousal. What are the necessary components for an image or position to be perceived as sensual? What makes a person or situation erotic and why? Is eroticism compatible with love? Michel Dorais’ answers may be surprising but always interesting and useful.

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