“Moe Tremblay is struggling with domesticity. New to Montréal, his wife climbs the corporate law ladder while he stays home with the kids. It sounded like a good idea. Then Dean shows up. Enticing him with tales of grime and glory, he convinces Moe to join his band, Guilt Trip.

This opens the door to a world of aging musician journeymen and a local music scene that is soiled and sexy, alluring and dangerous. The Guilt Trippers is a darkly funny and moving take on modern parenthood, the Montréal music scene, and some of the musicians who call it home.”

“There’s a city on an island in the Pacific that can only be reached by ferry, a city where a mechanic named Frank opens a garage with his old friend Charlie. Both men marry the women they love but are unable to have children. There are drugs on the streets of this city that take away pain for strings of minutes and bring synthetic rapture; and by these streets the couples are given two babies, abandoned under strange circumstances. The boy they name Daphnis, and the girl Chloe.

And so begins a book unlike anything else, a modern retelling of an ancient story. Part Ovid and part True Romance, and narrated by Eros himself, Daphnis and Chloe offers a pulpy meditation on love and beauty, on people triumphing over darkness by wrestling deep within it, on the solace of art, and on the simple but profound pleasure provided to a blind old man as he holds his wife’s hand and listens to an increasingly familiar story.”

“With an uncompromising and relatable voice, Zorn travels through Mexico, Morocco, Texas, England, Austria, Tunisia, and northeastern Quebec in these seven short stories and one novella, each following a compelling narrator on a quest — to find someone who does not wish to be found, to discover the truth behind family secrets, to expiate guilt, to make new bonds, to realize a dream. Far from home, facing new mirrors, characters leave old selves behind and discover new ones. Alice Zorn shines once again in this exploration of friendship, love, art, work, gender, and cultural identity in this spectacular collection of travel fiction.”

“Exiled from his community, a young Innu man finds himself adrift on the streets of Montreal.

Released from prison after ten years spent behind bars for the murder of his violent, alcoholic father, Élie Mestenapeo finds himself out in the world again, but alone. Banished for life from his community, Nutashkuan, he heads south to Montreal, where he becomes part of a new community—Cree, Nakota, Inuit, Innu, Mohawk, and Atikamekw come together in Cabot Square. There, Élie meets Mary and Tracy, Inuuk twin sisters who take him under their wing; Jimmy, a Nakota man who hands out hot meals to those the city has forgotten; and Mafia Doc, an aging, self-proclaimed nurse who refuses to abandon his tent even as winter’s brutal cold descends. When old wounds threaten to reopen, Élie’s loved ones worry what a search for truth might do to him and the community around him.

In this deeply compassionate novel, Michel Jean gives voice to those living on society’s margins. With tenderness and unflinching honesty, he reveals lives scarred by violence and addiction but also sustained by resilience, kinship, and the faint, persistent light of hope.”