IL PRÉFÉRAIT LES BRÛLER

A STUNNING AND ASTONISHINGLY WELL-STRUCTURED DEBUT NOVEL.

Fawn's father is a man who oozes charisma but leaves his conquests feeling nothing but contempt. He attracts women only to cast them aside, has children only so he can abandon them, and seems to live and breathe only to get his rocks off. Until sickness strikes. Knowing his days are numbered by cancer, he resolves to do his only daughter proud and prove that nothing means more to him than her. From one earth-shattering experience to another, Fawn has to grow up in the midst of anguish and grief with the uncertainty of a love as vast as it is tainted. There's no way she could ever emerge unscathed.

In this work of autofiction, Rose-Aimée Automne T. Morin draws on her own childhood experience to explore the perversions of death, tearing apart the brutal truth of family, power, desire, redemption and the responsibilities we choose to face up to. Or not.

EXCERPT
Because every moment is the last, I try to imprint it all in my mind. Life with my father is a collection of moments to cherish, because they are miraculous, no matter how mundane or deeply disappointing they are. The everyday is a fable and memory is a duty.
My childhood is a necklace strung with stones as hard as they are precious. Gradually they start to smoulder, like hot coals.
I wish I could take it off. But what would I have left, then?

Rose-Aimée Automne T. Morin became a researcher when she emerged from Université du Québec à Montréal in 2011. She was editor-in-chief for Urbania magazine from 2015 to 2018 and still contributes articles to the print version and blog posts for the website. She has also hosted and appeared on a number of TV shows.