May Our Joy Endure

(Paperback)

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Description

Winner of the 2023 Prix Mdicis, Prix Dcembre, and Prix Ringuet

Cline Wachowski, internationally renowned architect and accidental digital-culture icon, finally unveils her plans for the Webuy Complex, her first major public project commissioned by the city of Montreal, her hometown. But instead of the triumphant celebration she anticipates in at last bringing her reputation to bear in her own city, the project is immediately excoriated by critics, who accuse the her of callously destroying the social fabric of struggling neighborhoods, ushering in a new era of gentrification, and many even deadlier sins. Caught in the turmoil between her vision for a new Montreal and the protestors whose actions grow increasingly personal, Cline must make sense of the charges against herself and the milieu in which she finds the people she believes to be her friends. For the first time in danger of losing their footing, what fictions do they tell themselves to justify their privileges, and to maintain their position in the world that they themselves have built

A dazzling social novel set in the microcosm of the ultra privileged, May Our Joy Endure depicts with razor-sharp acuity the terrible beauty of wealth, influence, and art in the era of late capitalism.

Reviews

Praise for Querelle of Roberval

"It has finally arrived: the erotic Qubcois novel about labor conflict that weve all been waiting for . . . The book is written in an icy style. Try to find a surplus adjectiveI dare you. It is not for the squeamish but (or rather, and) is easily one of the best novels Ive read this year."
Molly Young, New York Times

"As this off-putting yet attractively written novel explores both meanings of the word 'union,' sex and domination are presented as conjoined compulsions that can lead to brutal forms of ecstasy."
Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

"Structured as a reimagining of Greek tragedy, Querelle of Roberval is a book that reads like a swift, vivid dream. The language is direct and cuts straight to the bone, while dealing with passions both personal and professional . . . Brutal and beautiful by turns, this novel will grip readers from the first sentence all the way to its shocking conclusion."
David Vogel, Buzzfeed

Lamberts fearless novel is a profane, funny, bleak, touching, playful, and outrageous satire of sexual politics, labour, and capitalism . . . The book is brash, beautiful, quasi-mythic, and tragic. Most improbably, for all its daring and provocation, Querelle of Roberval is lyrically, even tenderly written.
Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Judges Citation

Author Bio

Born in 1992, Kevin Lambert grew up in Chicoutimi, Quebec. He earned a master's degree in creative writing at the Universit de Montral. His widely acclaimed first novel, You Will Love What You Have Killed, was a finalist for Quebec's Booksellers' Prize. His second novel, Querelle of Roberval, won France's Marquis de Sade Prize, and was a finalist for the prestigious Prix Mdicis and the literary prize of the Paris newspaper Le Monde. In Canada, Querelle of Roberval won the Prix Ringuet of the Quebec Academy of Arts and Letters, was a finalist for the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Grand Prix du Livre de Montral, and won or was a finalist for six other literary prizes. Kevin Lambert lives in Montreal.

Donald Winkler is a translator of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. He is a three-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for French-to-English translation. He lives in Montreal.