Remnants - Paperback

by Céline Huyghebaert (Author), Aleshia Jensen (Translator)

Finalist for the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for Translation

Winner of the 2022 VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award

Remnants is an exploration of our relationships with family and perception, told through a profound investigation of a father's life and sudden death. Employing various voices and hybrid forms--including dialogues, questionnaires, photographs, and dream documentation--Huyghebaert builds a fragmented picture of a father-daughter relationship that has been shaped by silences and missed opportunities.

The reader attempts to untangle fact from fiction: multiple versions of Huyghebaert's father are presented while remnants of his life disappear achingly quickly. What is left of someone who was not important enough to be archived? How do we talk about what no longer exists?

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for French-language fiction, Remnants asks essential questions we often only peer at from the corner of an eye; questions about the value of life in its duration and passing. This is a transcendent work, ideal for readers of Annie Ernaux, Sophie Calle, and Maggie Nelson.

Author Biography

CÉLINE HUYGHEBAERT is an artist and a writer. Her work, at the intersection of visual arts, language and literature, has been exhibited in France and Canada. In 2019, she won the Governor General's Literary Award for French-language Fiction for her first novel, Le drap blanc, published by Le Quartanier, and she was awarded the Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. Born in France in 1978, she has been living in Montréal since 2002.

ALESHIA JENSEN is a literary translator and former bookseller living in Tio'tia: ke/Montréal. A four-time finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation, Jensen translates Quebec and French fiction and indie comics. Her translations include Remnants by Céline Huyghebaert, Prague by Maude Veilleux, in co-translation with Aimee Wall, as well as graphic novels by Mirion Malle, María Medem, and Camille Jourdy.