La petite et le vieux
Mr. Roger and Me
by Marie-Renée Lavoie
Éditions XYZ, 2010
238 pages
14×21 cm
Helen, alias Joe, would rather be a boy and get into all kinds of adventures, like Lady Oscar, her favorite cartoon heroine. One day she makes friends with her new neighbor, Mister Roger, an old man who drinks like a fish, swears like a sailor and dreams of dying. Through him, she realizes that adventure is all around you, every day.
Eight years old but claiming to be ten, her name is Helen, but she calls herself Joe: she wants to live as a boy like Lady Oscar, her favorite cartoon heroine, and dreams to live in another era and realize great deeds. She lives with three sisters, a father who is very busy being unhappy, and a stern mother in a working-class neighborhood, populated by picturesque people.
Helen develops a strong friendship with the newest and oddest of them: Mr. Roger, an old man who dreams of dying and spends his days drinking beer, but rushes as soon as he’s needed.
In a tender and moving story, they will realize that real adventure is all around us, at all times.
Press:
«This book, with its lively and ironic writing, can make you laugh from the heart while being deeply moving.»
Le Devoir
«A rare success for a first novel: masterful writing and colourful language […] inexhaustible tenderness which touches us profoundly. A pleasure from start to finish.»
Entre les lignes
Winner of the Prix de la relève littéraire Archambault 2011
Winner of the Combat des livres de Radio-Canada 2012
Shortlisted to the Prix des 5 continents de la Francophonie 2011
Shortlisted to the Prix littéraire France-Québec 2011
Rights sold: World English, German, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Italian
Rights available: Brazil
Marie-Renée Lavoie has won numerous awards (including, with La petite et le vieux, the Archambault emerging talent prize and the Combat des livres Radio-Canada). Her novel Les chars meurent also was chosen by Quebec City in the spring of 2019 for the Une ville, un livre campaign. Autopsy of a Flat Woman, the first volume of the adventures of Diane Delaunais which continue in Diane demands a recount, has been published in France, English Canada and Germany, and has sold over 10,000 copies.
* For any info about Marie-Renée Lavoie’s other publications please contact us at info@redondobooks.com *
