Maillet, Antonine

Pélagie: The Return to Acadie

In 1979, the legendary Acadian novelist Antonine Maillet won France’s most coveted literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for the original version of this novel, Pélagie-la-Charette. In her acceptance speech, she said, "I have avenged my ancestors." Goose Lane Editions is proud to re-issue this classic of Acadian literature to mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of Acadie and the début of the novel’s musical adaptation, Pélagie: An Acadian Odyssey. This funny, lyrical account of a daring Acadian widow’s journey home from exile is the Mother Courage of Acadian literature. At thirty-five, Pélagie is a survivor of the Great Disruption of 1755, when British soldiers deported Acadians who had farmed along the Bay of Fundy for generations. Splitting up families, the soldiers tossed men, women, and children pell-mell into ships and dispatched them to ports all along the eastern seaboard of the US and to Louisiana. When it was heard years later that the British would tolerate their return to Acadie, thousands loaded possessions and children onto handcarts and set out on foot. After fifteen years of working as a slave in the cotton fields of Georgia, Pélagie, too, has had enough. Drawn home as if by a magnet, inspired by her love of her family and of Beausoleil, a heroic sea captain, and determined to outrace the “Wagon of Death,” Pélagie sets off to take her people on a 3,000-mile trek back to their homeland. Her single cart, pulled by six oxen, soon attracts scattered Cormiers and LeBlancs, Landrys and Poiriers, Maillets and Légers. Together, this caravan of colourful Acadians undertakes a ten-year journey up the Atlantic coast to their childhood homes

Pelagie-la-Charrette

La Sagouine

The premise is deceptively simple: a dirt-poor charwoman and former prostitute leans on her mop and tells her life story. But what a story! As she reminisces and rants, telling stories about herself, her friends and neighbours, the priest and his church, and every other aspect of life in her village, she is actually telling the story of Acadie. More than 25 years after its first publication in English, La Saguoine is available once again, this time in a new translation. Wayne Grady, one of Canada's most distinguised translators, faithfully recreates Acadian speech for an English readership in this new edition, bringing out the cultural richness of the language as well as La Saguoine's strength of character and irrepressible humour. La Saguoine launched the careers of both Antonine Maillet and the actress Viola Léger. with sales of ver 100,000 copies, it brought the existence of Acadian literature to a wide and admiring audience. This new edition will introduce it once again to a new generation of English readers.

Mariaagelas: Maria, Daughter of Gelas

Mariaagelas

The Devil Is Loose!

The Tales of Don L'Orignal (New Press Canadian Classics)

Les confessions de Jeanne de Valois: Roman

On the Eighth Day

"On the seventh day, God rested." He'd had a busy week, forming the earth and everything in it and creating Adam and Eve. But a week is only a week. No wonder our world has so many loose ends. In On the Eighth Day, Antonine Maillet imagines a solution: a wider and more exuberant world created on "the day when everything is dared and anything is possible." She spins a tale of two brothers -- a giant carved from an oak tree and a scamp shaped out of bread dough -- who set off to seek their fortunes. Wending their way through unforgettable lands -- the Timeless Village, the Upside-Down Town, the Path of the Vicious Circle -- they make many strange friends. But wherever Life leads them, Death lurks close behind.