The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, originally published in French as La Petite Fille qui Aimait Trop les Alumettes, dominated the bestseller lists and captured major media attention when it appeared in Quebec. It was the first novel published in Quebec ever to be nominated -- let alone become a finalist -- for France's prestigious Prix Renaudot.
It is a magic-realist story of a boy and girl who grow up isolated (except through books and fairy tales) from the outside world and who must confront it together upon their father's suicide. Soucy's signature playfulness, surprising twists, and fascination with guilt, cruelty, and violence make The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches a triumph.
GAÉTAN SOUCY was a novelist and professor. He published four novels to wide acclaim in Canada and abroad: The Immaculate Conception, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction; Atonement, Vaudeville!; and The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, which was translated into more than ten languages. He died in Montreal in 2013.
Sheila Fischman is the preeminent translator of French fiction in Canada. She has won the Governor General’s Literary Award as well as the Félix Antoine-Savard Prize.
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