It may be easy to overlook this slim novel on the bookshelves, especially with those Giller long-listed heavyweights vying for your attention, but please pick this one up. It will leave you gasping.
Desjardins masterfully pulls you along as the characters slowly reveal the grievances and hurts of their pasts. Just as you begin to wonder where it is heading she unleashes the brutal, shocking climax, ending the novel with no concern for the sentimental reader. It is perfect. That Lily McEvoy is swallowed whole by her bitterness, that her selfishness and pride erodes her soul (as literally as does her obsession with and consumption of salt) leaving her bereft and isolated is a just and fully satisfying outcome. Hats off to Desjardins.
Praise:
“In carrying us to a very dark place where totters the border between our country and that of legends … Desjardins offers to Québécois literature one of its great contemporary Gothic novels … [A] true jewel from a writer as discreet as gifted.” — Le Libraire
Do not skip this gem when you're out shopping for this fall's great Canadian literature.
A Covenant of Salt
Martine Desjardins
Talon Books * 978-0-88922-566-4 * $17.95 paperback * In stock
For more about the book go to Talon Books.com
Purchase from your favourite local bookstore or click here:
Amazon.ca
Chapters.ca
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