Il y a les premiers symptômes, l'inquiétude, les tests, puis l'annonce tant redoutée : celle de la maladie. Aussitôt, entre les murs de l'hôpital, le temps s'arrête, le futur est en suspens. Si les émotions et les questions s'emmêlent, c'est le désir de vivre qui hurle le plus fort. Au chevet de la lumière illustre, par le biais d'images magnifiques, qu'on peut entretenir l'espoir même dans l'adversité.ExtraitLa maladie est une libelluleQui se pose sur mon doigtElle ne veut pas partirJe lui murmure qu'il le faut bien

Premier jour au secondaire, premier frisson : Peigner le feu capture l’émoi des ados face à l’inconnu. Entre rires et trahisons, ce recueil de poésie jeunesse pose des mots justes sur l’apprentissage de la vie en collectivité.

Quand les mots deviennent des montagnes et les phrases des obstacles, Le plancher de la Lune offre une échappée poétique et tendre.

Louis, a young queer man, lives in Pointe-aux-Trembles, in Montreal's east end, with his rap-obsessed, schizophrenic brother and their terminally ill father. While working at a Tim Horton's, Louis dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. Delivered in short, addictive chapters, All Kidding Aside deftly juggles themes of love, class, and grief with poetic mockery and spare, electric banter. Poet, novelist, and screenwriter Jean-Christophe Réhel is the author of six collections of poetry. His first novel, Tatouine, published orginally in French under the title Ce qu'on respire sur Tatouine, won the prestigious Prix littéraire des collegiens in 2019. Published in English in 2020, it was longlisted for Canada Reads. Réhel's TV series, L'air d'aller, won the Prix des étudiants à Canneseries in 2023. He lives in Montreal. Neil Smith is a Montreal-based writer translator. His novel, Boo, published in 2015, won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. His 2007 short story collection, Bang Crunch, was selected as a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Globe and Mail, won the McAuslan First Book Prize, and was a finalist for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. The Goddess of Fireflies, Smith's translation of Geneviève Pettersen's novel La déesse des mouches à feu, was nominated for the 2016 Governor General's Award. His latest novel, Jones, published in 2022, was nominated for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Reviews and Praise "All Kidding Aside (...) takes its readers on a journey into a world woven with turbulent adventures, offering a deep and captivating exploration of brotherly love, precarity, and grief." - Alice Laforce, le Nouvelliste "In Jean-Christophe Réhel's (...) `love letter to comedy', the poet and screenwriter wrestles with themes that challenge, yet never dip into pity. The winner of the Prix littéraire des collégiens celebrates the beauty the everyday... and laughs about it."- Radio-Canada "Réhel pulls us into a rather gloomy universe of messy bedrooms, boot-slopped kitchen floors, soulless Timbits, objects of thoughtless gluttony, chunks of sandwich scattered in the street, carrots jammed into the bottom of a snowman's belly. But `in the midst of all this baseness,' as Brassens might say, we witness real and touching human connections."- François Lavallée, Nuit Blanche About Tatouine: "A joy to read!" - Shelagh Rogers, CBC's The Next Chapter "A novel of inventive, self-deprecating humour." - Jade Colbert, The Globe and Mail "Réhel gives the reader a front-row seat to a baroque and often hilarious interiority - one that highlights the complexity and tragedy of the human condition, while playfully revealing the capacity of the human mind for turning the struggles of existence, large and small, into a source of amusement. [...] In addition to the often-dark humour, Réhel has a poet's eye for rhythm, repetition, and stark imagery that thankfully isn't lost in the exceptional translation by Katherine Hastings and Peter McCambridge." (Dean Garlick, Montreal Review of Books) "Certainly one of my favourites of this year." (Steven Buechler, The Library of Pacific Tranquility)

It's a long way from a basement apartment in a Montreal suburb to a new life on a fictional planet, but that's the destination our unnamed narrator has set his sights on, bringing readers with him on an off-beat and often hilarious journey. Along the way, he writes poems, buys groceries at the dollar store, and earns minimum wage at a dead-end supermarket job. In between treatments for his cystic fibrosis and the constant drip-drip-drip of disappointment, he dreams of a new life on Tatouine, where he'll play Super Mario Bros and make sand angels all day. But in the meantime, he'll have to make do with daydreams of a better life. Author Jean-Christophe Réhel's début novel Ce qu'on respire sur Tatouine won Quebec's prestigious Prix littéraire des collégiens. It is his only novel to be translated into English so far; he is busy writing a second. Réhel is also the author of five poetry collections. He lives in Montreal. Translators Peter McCambridge Originally from Ireland, Peter McCambridge holds a BA in modern languages from Cambridge University, England, and has lived in Quebec City since 2003. He runs Québec Reads and now QC Fiction. His translation of Eric Dupont's La Fiancée américaine, Songs for the Cold of Heart, was shortlisted for both the 2018 Giller Prize and the 2018 Governor General's Award for Translation. It has now been published worldwide, outside of Canada, by HarperCollins. Katherine Hastings After immigrating to Canada from the U.K., Katherine Hastings spent ten years in Ontario before moving to Montreal, where she completed a degree in modern languages at McGill University. She has worked as a Quebec-based translator and copyeditor since 1995. Her previous literary translations, The Unknown Huntsman and The Electric Baths, were both by Jean-Michel Fortier. Reviews/praise I'm still in shock. It's just incredible. EVERY line in this first novel deserves to be underlined. It's a book to scribble hearts and stars all over One thousand stars for this author. (Claudia Larochelle, arts columnist) There is a unique and sometimes funny take on an element of the human condition in Jean-Christophe Réhel's novel Tatouine. It is a light read but one that is memorable. And it is certainly one of my favourites of this year. (Steven Buechler, The Library of Pacific Tranquility) the melancholy, mirthful story of a likeable 31-year-old with a poor self-image [] a very worthwhile read (James Fisher, The Miramichi Reader) At the end, we want to say: I am Réhel. I am Anakin. I'm a comedian. I'm Yoda reading a book and crying in the bath. (Laurie Bédard, Spirale magazine) I read the whole thing without putting it down once, as though I'd just heard from a friend I'd been worrying about. (Véronique Côté, Le Devoir) A beautiful novel! (Marie-Louise Arseneault, Plus on est de fous, plus on lit !) There's no shortage of light in this novel. (Dominic Tardif, Le Devoir) Jean-Christophe Réhel is one of my big discoveries this year. [] Uncompromising urban poetry, sometimes violent, sometimes funny, bursting with self-deprecation. (Christian Bégin, Canadian actor & TV personality)