MANAM

Léa is a teacher. Each September, she welcomes 20 new children with whom she will work in the coming year. Each time, she waves the dictionary in front of them, describing it as a treasure chest of the 26 letters. She tells them it includes everything they need to tell their stories – even the secrets that they dare not share with anyone. Even silence. And secrets and silence are a huge part of the legacy left behind by Téta, Léa's beloved grandmother, who has just died at the age of 107.

In this novel, Rima Elkouri untangles the threads of a scarred family history. Like Téta, who always had a tale at the ready, she tells the story of the Armenian genocide. Along the way, she illuminates a certain idea of Quebec and its immigrants. She does it with finesse and humility, on a human scale, making excellent use of her talent as a writer of portraits to get inside the lives of courageous people who are staunchly on the side of life.

Née à Montréal, Rima Elkouri est journaliste et chroniqueuse à La Presse. Lauréate du prix Jules-Fournier de la langue française, elle a publié l'essai Pas envie d'être arabe (2014). Manam est son premier roman.