Joy Of Our Desiring

Original title: Que notre joie demeure

Author: Lambert, Kevin

Publication Date:

September 2022

Pages:

376

Original language and publisher

French | Héliotrope

Territories Handled

Netherlands, North America, Scandinavia

Territories Sold

France (Le Nouvel Attila/Seuil)
North America (Biblioasis)
Arabic (Al Arabi)

Genre

Literary Fiction

Awards:

  • Prix Décembre 2023 (longlisted)

Joy Of Our Desiring

Original title: Que notre joie demeure

Author: Lambert, Kevin

Synopsis

We apparently deal with a prodigy. […] The text impresses by the quality of a prose that is so young though. Guillaume Perilhou, Têtu

This is a great ethical book, a total novel. An overwhelming text, just as Lambert’s first two novels, but with a much more fictional structure. — Benoît Virot, founder of Le Nouvel Attila

There is a spectrum that haunts Kevin Lambert’s novel: the capitalist spectrum. The new novel by one of the most interesting and youngest voices from Quebec is a brilliant tale, built as a Greek tragedy full of lyricism and poetry. The powerful–and dark, novel of our time.

The stunning Céline Wachowsky, a world-famous architect, finally reveals the Webuy Complex, an ambitious and structuring project that is first and foremost the first major public project she completes for her city of Montreal. However, criticisms by the locals and activist groups do not take long before they start bursting out: Céline gets blamed for destroying the social fabric as well as for speeding up gentrification and for many other deadlier sins. The architect gets caught up in a storm and is ordered to react.

Kevin Lambert portrays the ruling class, exploring the psyche of those who are at the top of their discipline and run the risk to lose ground for the very first time. What story do they tell each other to justify their privileges, to establish themselves in a world created by them? With an immersive and agile prose, Joy of our desiring makes its characters’ opinions and secret thoughts heard, while drawing a clear-sighted portrait of the Montreal of today.

Marketing Information

  • English sample available
  • About Querelle (winner of the Prix Sade): “A poetic ode with a provocative and irreverent tone that reminds of Jean Genet or Edouard Louis.” — Thierry Calmont, Magasine La tribu Move

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