In Les Aurores montréales (Aurora Montrealis), Monique Proulx offered up what some consider to be the definitive urban fictional work. She rendered with unparalleled skill the urban landscape and its fauna.

We can therefore be forgiven for being astonished that her new novel is set in the country, somewhere in the Upper-Laurentians. With the taut, exact and multifaceted style that is her trademark, Monique Proulx brings to life the many unsuspected splendors of this part of the country. A big peaceful lake, which has so far escaped the plague of outboard motors, nestled in the middle of green valleys, surrounded by wooden cabins. It is the enchanted realm of insects, rodents, lynxes, birds, of a whole population of animals both domestic and wild who share this threatened realm. The humans that live by the lake are just as fascinating. Because there are no crowds in which to hide, they express their individuality with even greater force and their destinies are all the more inescapable.

There’s Lila Szach, from another age and another continent, who oversees the continued peace of the area.  There are the Clémonts, who have no idea of the preciousness that surrounds them, even though they’ve lived there forever;  there is Claire, who is searching for a balance between the imaginary world and the real one; and Violette, the stranger, who’s wounds leave no one indifferent; and at last, Jérémie, the youngest of all, a continual source of worry.