VIRAL

L'auteur de Côte-des-Nègres nous offre une comédie de moeurs mordante et intelligente.

One hot September morning, a video starts making the rounds, leaving discord in its wake. A young man wearing a djellaba boards a packed bus and gets into a heated argument with the driver. The scene is captured on cellphones, and shared by a journalist. The video goes viral, accumulating heated arguments and crude insults along the way. Did the man commit an act of violence against women, as Muslim men are so often accused of? Or was it the woman behind the wheel whose harsh attitude showed, once again, that oldstock Quebecers are inherently hostile toward immigrants? In this exploration of several diverging points of view, Mauricio Segura gleefully roasts his contemporaries. Exploding prejudices and conventional wisdom, he draws a captivating portrait of today's Montreal, with all its miseries and hopes.

Born in Temuco, Chile, Mauricio Segura arrived as a child in Canada. His novel Côte-des-Nègres was a great success and is on the program of high schools. He wrote a novel on the famous jazzman Oscar Peterson (Oscar) and is considered an important author of migrant literature in Quebec. Viral is his 5th novel.

“It is a portrait of society that Segura makes, without ever falling into moral judgment.” La Presse
“A novel where Montreal, diverse and digital, lives to the fullest.” Radio-Canada International
“It talks about the very complex situation in which our Western societies find themselves in the Trump era and asks the question: do we know how to live with our differences?” Radio VM
“Fascinating!” Radio-Canada
“Very accurate, very sensitive and balanced portraits of teenagers. It's extraordinary!” Plus on est de fous, plus on lit
“This choral novel allows us to intelligently question ourselves on the place reserved for immigrants and their children in Quebec society and also on the famous living together.” Les libraires
“A brilliant novel that opens the eyes of Quebecers.” Critique libre
“Segura's writing animates the portraits of each character; these reveal a part of personal and collective imaginaries, and test social dissonances.” Vues transversales