Yes, Pride Month is in August in Montreal-we’ve decided to do things differently… But in the meantime, we’re going to start reading our talented Quebec authors!
Art has always been a way of expressing one’s claims and advancing society’s view of various causes. Literature is no exception, having been the starting point for revolutions, debates, changes…
The fight against LGBTphobia and for the rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ people therefore also involves literature. To give you something to read and think about this summer, we suggest these 10 books.
1.Hugo est gay: dans la peau d’un jeune homo, Hugues Barthe
Follow the exchanges between Hugo, a young man from the early 2000s, and Augustin, a 14-year-old boy from 2021. The latter will help Hugo find answers to the questions he has about his identity. The clash between the perspectives of 2000 and 2021 will be felt, but the similarities between the two characters’ experiences will be just as striking.
On sale at Indigo and Renaud-Bray.
2.Québecqueer: Le Queer Dans Les Productions Littéraires, Artistiques Et Médiatiques Québécoises, Isabelle Boisclair et al.
This book offers a portrait of queer cultural productions in Quebec, going so far as to reveal the queer character of those that are not de facto queer. Through a series of critical essays and experimental texts, you’ll learn more about Quebec’s literature, performing arts, media arts and gay press.
On sale at PUM, Renaud-Bray and Indigo.
3. Les vilaines, Camila Sosa Villada
Follow the story of Aunt Encarna in Sarmiento, Córdoba, Argentina. Auntie Encarna is a protective mother in Sarmiento’s trans community. She and her sisters share the ups and downs of life. One day, they find an abandoned baby and decide to adopt it clandestinely. His name is Éclat des Yeux. A beautiful read about the reality of trans people, about dreams and personal struggles, about joy and pain.
On sale at Indigo, Renaud-Bray and Gallimard.
4. Pas dire, Baptiste Thery-Guilbert
In Paris, from 1987-1992, the narrator has an affair with an anonymous boy who rejects his sexuality. The relationship is violent, intense and painful. At the same time, the AIDS epidemic is affecting the gay community, particularly Hervé, a friend. He dies. Readers will follow the narrator through his grief, reflections and experiences.
As the publisher points out: ” Pas dire can be read from the beginning of the book or from the end. Those who prefer the chronological direction will choose the second option. The experience will be different.
On sale at Gallimard, Zone Libre and Indigo.
5. Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead
Jonny, who lives off the reserve, becomes a cybersex worker to earn a living. In a week, he must return to the reserve for his father-in-law’s funeral. The reader follows Jonny in the days leading up to his return. Sex, love, trauma and memories are the order of the day.
This book is one of the Globe and Mail’s 100 best titles of 2018.
On sale at Renaud-Bray, bookstores and Zone Libre.
6Ce que je sais de toi, Eric Chacour
“Memories are only of value to those who live in them. Once the latter have disappeared, they become a currency that no longer holds any value, a monkey currency to be wary of.”
This is a book set in Cairo in the 1980s. A young doctor, Tarek, is following his destiny when he meets someone who will jeopardize his marriage, his career and his heart, and ultimately force him into exile.
Tarek moves from the Levantine community of Egypt to the winters of Montreal, from the reign of Nasser to the dawn of the 2000s.
Thousands of miles away, someone is researching and writing the story of his life. Ce que je sais de toi is the story of an absence, a heartbreak and a society in the throes of transformation. This is Éric Chacour’s first novel. “A book that smells of garlic, aniseed and family secrets.”
It’s a favorite of Renaud-Bray’s booksellers, the Prix des libraires 2024 and the Prix Fémina des lycéens 2023.
It’s on sale at Renaud-Bray and online, here!
7Melting Blues Delicious, Daniel French
This is a book in the form of a letter; Louise tells her son François about her own childhood, her meeting with his father, their life together – and reveals intimate, painful secrets, as well as the big and small moments of her love life. The narrative is intimate, colorful and, through the story of a life, tells of a father’s homophobia towards his son.
The book is part of Daniel French’s HIV-AIDS trilogy, following L’eau des nuages and Entre le rose et le noir.
Melting Blues Delicious is on sale online here!
8. queer sexualities and dissidence, coordinated by Chacha Enriquez
This collection of essays, coordinated by Chacha Enriquez, brings together writings that reflect on sexuality and love and sexual liberation through the prisms of sociology, sexology, social work or a field perspective.
The book is recommended and available at Librairie Féministe l’Euguélionne and online here!
9.Good Boy, Antoine Charbonneau-Demers
This is a book that follows a 19-year-old fresh from the countryside-a novel of learning and wandering in the big city and sexual awakening, with elements of poetry and magical realism that transform adolescence into a complex, psychedelic gem.
Good Boy is on sale at Renaud-Bray here, and can be borrowed with a library card (which is free if you live in Montreal) here!
10La Fille d’elle-même, Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay
The book is a tale that begins in the forest and in childhood, where a little girl inhabits a boy’s body and, after a painful gestation period, gives birth to herself to become the woman she has always been.
The book won the Romans-Nouvelles-Récits prize at the Prix des Libraires du Québec in 2022.
La Fille d’elle-même is on sale at Renaud-Bray here and available for borrowing in Montreal libraries here!
Enjoy your reading!