Amiante

Publication Date:

August 2024

Pages:

224

Original language and publisher

French | La Peuplade

Territories Handled

Netherlands, North America, Scandinavia

Territories Sold

Italy (La Nueva Frontiera)
Croatia (Leykam)
English (North America) (Coach House Books)

Genres

Debut Novel, Literary Fiction

Number of copies sold:

33,000 copies in print

Awards:

  • Prix littéraire « Le Monde » 2024 (shortlist)
  • Prix Première Plume (shortlist)
  • Prix Wepler-Fondation La Poste (shortlist)
  • Prix du Premier Roman (longlist)
  • Prix Première Paroles (shortlist)
  • Prix Pantagruel (shortlist)
  • Prix Samantha de la Librairie L’étagère, Saint-Malo (winner)
  • Prix littéraire Poisson qui lit de la Librairie du Pincerais à Poissy (shortlist)
  • 4e Prix Micheline (shortlist)
  • Prix de la Fleur de la librairie La Fleur qui pousse à l’intérieur (shortlist)

Amiante

Synopsis

“A dazzling first novel. A moving new voice. A revelation.” — Augustin Trapenard, La Grande Librairie
“A publisher and a performer, the author has three collections of poetry behind him. And how, at times, a poetic force seems to seep through the lines like wisps of smoke, and manages, by some telluric movement, to lift his paragraphs to lofty heights: that’s how we remember it. A scent of burning and a breath of air.” — Thomas Stélandre, Libération
Sébastien Dulude blends intimate and social drama through the different seasons of an eminently sensitive boy, whose presence and psychology are so finely drawn that he follows us in our dreams after we’ve read, perched on his famous “bicycle”, searching for his lost Eden.” — Le Point
“It strikes the imagination, dying in a tornado, it’s even horrible. I remember seeing a space shuttle explode, that was pretty horrible too. I sincerely hope he didn’t suffer. I suffered from him.”

Thetford Mines, flagship of Quebec’s asbestos industry, summer 1986. Nine-year-old Steve Dubois and ten-year-old Poulin indulge in the pleasures of friendship. The summer season is punctuated by adventures on the high spoil tips and escapes through half-forested, half-lunar landscapes. The days of the two inseparables pass in idleness and innocence, on their bikes or lying in their cabin among the pines.

This short and moving novel, with its sharp and precise style, tells the story of a tragedy that takes place in the 1980s, in the town of Thetford Mines, Quebec, that is back then one of the world’s asbestos mining capitals. In the summer of 1986, 9-year-old Steve Dubois tragically loses his best friend in a play-related accident. This dramatic event affects the beginning of a suffering adolescence, filled with guilt and rage, which culminates in a desperate act. A sensitive and social novel in the vein of Nicolas Mathieu, Amiante tells the story of a particular distress in a dying industrial landscape. The entire story is told from Steve’s point of view. Sébastien Dulude tells the story of a fragile, flammable youth in a working-class American Dream that is losing momentum.

Marketing Information

  • Long English synopsis available