Choosing Eleonore
Choosing Eleonore
Choosing Eleonore tells the story of a one-way friendship, of tragic loneliness. In it, award-winning Quebec author Andrée A. Gratton explores the syndrome of the delusion of being loved. Centred on two young women: Eleonore and Marianne, this is Marianne's story. From the first sentence, we feel that something is wrong in her perception of reality. "Long before we met, Eleonore had been dreaming of me," she says. But who is this Eleonore, whom Marianne had never spoken to? What is so fascinating about her? Neither humiliation and rebuffs nor rejection will disabuse Marianne of her certainty of being loved by Eleonore.
Details
Details
Guernica Editions (Essential Translations Series)
9781771836500
80 pages |
Reviews
Reviews
In a way we are Marianne as we read. Her delusion, in fact, makes her uneasily relatable, an everywoman. This is at least partly to do with Gratton’s spare, tender and utterly convincing style, and Ian Thomas Shaw’s lucid translation. As for the rest, some human mysteries can only be experienced, not explained.
Ottawa Review of Books
Learn More
Learn More
- Crystal Fletcher (All About Books) interviews Andrée A. Gratton & Ian Thomas Shaw
- Ian Thomas Shaw interview with Susan Johnston on CKCU FM 93.1
- All Lit Up lists Choosing Eleonore as 1 of 5 Noteworthy New Books in Translation
- Author reading on All About Books
- Scotiabank Giller Prize's Craving CanLit 2021
- Goodreads
Awards
Awards
About the author
Andrée Gratton was born in Arvida in 1980. She lives in Montreal and teaches philosophy at Collège Maisonneuve. Choisir Eléonore (Choosing Eleonore) is her first novel.
Ian Thomas Shaw was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. For the last 33 years, he has worked as a diplomat and as an international development worker, living in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He currently lives in Aylmer, Quebec. He is the founder of Deux Voiliers Publishing, the Prose in the Park Literary Festival and the Ottawa Review of Books.