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Book Cover for: Written on Water, Michel Marc Bouchard

Written on Water

Michel Marc Bouchard

Torrential rains have descended upon a small isolated village, and the overflowing river has washed away everything in its path. The mudslide has gutted the writing room, the place where a group of senior citizens used to meet to record their memories. It was after the exodus of their children that they began to commit to paper the events, large and small, that had marked their lives. Now their papers--fragments of life, scraps of memory--are strewn around the countryside, along with the fragments of their community structures, habitations and memorials. To reverse this devastation, they have to put everything back in order, they have to remember, restore and rewrite, while a group of strangers, young volunteers, pull down the physical remains of what is left standing.

But what words can capture their lives? And for whom are they writing? In his determination to save the images of who they were, Samuel, the elderly leader of the group, is blind to the new reality around him. For some of his old companions, the flood represents an opportunity to make an unspoken dream come true; for others, it is an opportunity to confess secret loves, and to talk about the future. Assisted by Danny-the-Lonely-Child, the only child who never left the village, Samuel begins to realize that these fragments can never be restored--they can only be recombined into a narrative as fresh and new and real as the hopes and dreams of their original authors.

Cast of 3 women and 3 men.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Talonbooks
  • Publish Date: Feb 17th, 2004
  • Pages: 95
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.46in - 5.54in - 0.28in - 0.27lb
  • EAN: 9780889224926
  • Categories: Canadian

About the Author

Gaboriau, Linda: - Linda Gaboriau is an award-winning literary translator based in Montréal. Her translations of plays by Québec's most prominent playwrights have been published and produced across Canada and abroad. In her work as a literary manager and dramaturge, she has directed numerous translation residencies and international exchange projects. She is the founding -director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. Gaboriau has won the Governor General's Award for Translation three times: in 1996 for Daniel Danis's Stone and Ashes, in 2010 for Wajdi Mouawad's Forests, and in 2019 for Wajdi Mouawad's Birds of a Kind. She is a member of the Order of Canada and an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec.
Bouchard, Michel Marc: -

Québec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard emerged on the professional theatre scene in 1985. Since then, he has written more than 25 plays, many of which have been translated into more than 20 languages and performed globally. Several of his works have been adapted into films, notably Lilies (1996), directed by John Greyson, and Tom at the Farm (2013), directed by Xavier Dolan.

Throughout his career, Bouchard has received numerous accolades, including the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement (2023), the Prix Athanase-David (2021)--Quebec's highest literary honour--the National Order of Quebec (2012), and the Order of Canada (2005). He has also been honoured with the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the Chalmers Canadian Play Award, and the Lambda Literary Award for Best Drama.

Praise for this book

"This is a witty satire of one of the more tragic effects of globalization: the disregard for collective memory and for those who, like senior citizens, embody it or, like writers, wish to preserve it... Gaboriau has done a superlative job in reproducing the profound disarray underlying the characters' caustic humour and their violent reactions to differing points of view." -- University of Toronto Quarterly

"Gaboriau's extensive experience in translating Québécois drama ... enable[s her] to bring out the richness and subtleties of the [French text]." -- Canadian Literature