BY THE TIME I was five years old I had spent half my life hidden away in a barn loft. I had vague memories of the world outside and I listened to stories people around me told of that world, but it was hard for me to believe in its existence. Was there really anything beyond the wails of this barn? I knew that there were people out there, people other than my mother, my aunt, my cousin and another family who shared our hide-out, but it was hard for me to imagine them. At certain times, when a German patrol passed nearby and I was forced to remain still, I would try very hard to see beyond the walls of our shelter. Curiosity, doubt and fear coloured my images. Within their spectrum I recreated the world from which I was banished. Half invented and half remembered, it grew in my mind and satisfied the longings that sometimes came over me. Yet there was no urgency to my game; I was content to go on with my life indefinitely.

Dobryd

Charney, Ann

New Press

Douglas&McIntyre

Rousseau's Garden

Literature & Fiction

Erotica

Vehicule Pr

A crisp March morning in the Buttes-Chaumont park in Paris. Claire, waiting to meet her husband, Adrian, has more than a tourist's passing interest in the place. She has come to France to be with Adrian while he researches a book on French gardens, but Claire's real mission is to find out what happened to her mother, Dolly, during her last stay in Paris. Dolly, an ardent admirer of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and a promising sculptor, suffered a mysterious decline following her return home from the City of Light. Now severe panic attacks are forcing Claire to abandon her own work as a photographer. Is she repeating her mother's pattern? The answer, Claire believes, lies in the past.
Claire retraces Dolly's footsteps in Paris and in the nearby countryside, where Rousseau's spirit is still discernable. Claire's quest in France is filled with more than one startling discovery as she, Adrian, and their friends, navigate the tricky terrain of marriage, parenthood, friendship, and love.

Genre Fiction

Permanent Pr Pub Co

Nerina, a young woman living in Venice after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, is looking for a way to move to America. Her charm and grace bring her to the attention of Helena, a woman who seeks out "individuals with useful skills" for her contacts in the international art community. Nerina successfully adapts to the social and professional expectations of working with creative people. In fact, she is so successful that her greatest challenge lies not in achieving her dream, but in finding for a dream to pursue in the first place - a journey that takes her from Italy to New York, and finally Montreal. Ann Charney's Life Class is an unusual diaspora novel, casting its protagonist not as a leaf scattered by wind, but as a brave explorer following her ambitions.

Life Class

Literary

Cormorant Books

BY THE TIME I was five years old I had spent half my life hidden away in a barn loft. I had vague memories of the world outside and I listened to stories people around me told of that world, but it was hard for me to believe in its existence. Was there really anything beyond the wails of this barn? I knew that there were people out there, people other than my mother, my aunt, my cousin and another family who shared our hide-out, but it was hard for me to imagine them. At certain times, when a German patrol passed nearby and I was forced to remain still, I would try very hard to see beyond the walls of our shelter. Curiosity, doubt and fear coloured my images. Within their spectrum I recreated the world from which I was banished. Half invented and half remembered, it grew in my mind and satisfied the longings that sometimes came over me. Yet there was no urgency to my game; I was content to go on with my life indefinitely.

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

It’s Montreal, 1953, and eight-year-old Ellen, an only child prone to daydreaming, and her mother, a woman who believes in the promise of fresh starts, have moved into a large house on the flanks of Mt. Royal. To make ends meet, Ellen’s mother takes in a group of refugees from Central Europe, whose erratic behaviour and dark view of human nature captivate the young girl’s imagination. Ellen sees the refugees as a potential source of valuable information about her own background, of which she has heard little, except for a few stories about a lost golden civilization and the family’s distant connection to Sigmund Freud. The refugees soon leave to be replaced by Aunt Celia, a woman whose anxiety meter is permanently stuck at danger, and Ellen’s new stepfather, Dr. Henryk Steiner, whose years in the Soviet Union have earned him the title of "Playboy of the Communist World". While the adults wrangle with each other and the fallout from their past lives, Ellen sets her sights on exploring the brave new world of "America," and on becoming a teenage femme fatale. Her quest takes her to Crescent Bay, Long Island, and into the placid lives of her American cousins and their friends. Supporting her along the way is her best friend Lydia, a fellow rebel whose mother, Magda, sets off a series of events that will alter the course of the two girls’ lives.

Distantly Related to Freud

Contemporary

J’ai écrit Dobryd parce que je ne me retrouvais pas dans tous les textes écrits sur les enfants dans la guerre. Ce qui manquait, c’est cet étrange mélange de terreur et d’euphorie qui a caractérisé ma propre expérience. J’ai abordé l’écriture de ce livre comme de la fiction, une fiction fondée sur mon histoire personnelle. Et surtout, je voulais éviter la sentimentalité et le pathos. - A.C.“ À cinq ans, j’avais passé la moitié de ma vie cachée dans le fenil d’une grange. ” Dès la première phrase, le ton est donné. Juive polonaise, la narratrice est née pendant la guerre. En 1944, l’armée allemande recule devant les Russes, les villages polonais sont libérés, et enfin les occupants du grenier revoient le jour. La petite fille découvre le monde, dans un festival de sensations et de petits bonheurs quotidiens, alors qu’autour d’elle tout n’est que ruines et désolation. Sa mère et sa tante, après une étape dans un campement militaire, s’installent à Dobryd, leur ville d’origine, dans deux pièces épargnée par les tirs. Les trois survivantes peu à peu organisent leur retour à la vie, alors que, par la voix de la tante, émerge le monde englouti d’avant la guerre, temps béni où le grand-père, propriétaire terrien cosmopolite, régnait sur une famille prospère et éclairée. Passent aussi, comme des ombres, les destins tragiques des premiers persécutés. Les conditions matérielles devenant de plus en plus difficiles, et l’antisémitisme de plus en plus insupportable – l’opportunisme des paysans est ici remarquablement évoqué –, la famille finira par émigrer au Canada, où Ann Charney vit aujourd’hui encore.De son enfance dans la guerre, l’écrivain a tiré une formidable leçon de vie. Pour preuve, ce livre lumineux.

SABINE WESPIESE

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Charney, Ann. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Charney, Ann

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Charney, Ann. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dobryd

Dobryd

Rousseau's Garden

Rousseau's Garden

Life Class

Dobryd

Distantly Related to Freud

Dobryd