The Canadian author Gaétan Soucy (b. 1958) lives and works in Montreal and has written three novels. His two first novels, L'Immaculée conception (1994, “The Immaculate Conception”) and L'Acquittement (1997, Atonement) were considered extraordinary, dark and baroque, and not the least because of their language. His latest novel, La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes (2000, The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches) caused a sensation in Quebec and elsewhere in the world. It was immediately translated into more than ten languages, including Spanish and Chinese. It is the first Canadian novel ever to be nominated for the prestigious Prix Renaudot in France. The narrator of the novel is a little boy, who only knows of the world from books, such as the memoirs of Saint-Simon and the ethics of Spinoza. It is magic-realistic story of two brothers who have lived in isolation and suddenly have to confront the outside world when their father commits suicide. Soucy's style is playful and full of surprising twists; strangely seductive, it tells about guilt, cruelty and violence. Soucy, who has also been compared to Samuel Beckett, is praised for his ability to move and enchant without being pathetic. Soucy has studied physics, Japanese language and literature, and philosophy. He still works as a teacher of philosophy.
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