La Peuplade

La Peuplade Books

Voyage léger

Novel

Ariane, a typical character in a generation adrift, decides to leave the country on the first available flight in order to escape her present. Once in the departure lounge, she suddenly becomes paralyzed. Here’s the starting point of a very unexpected journey. Set against a decidedly urban background of random encounters, reflections and photographs, what shaped Ariane is dissected and questioned.

This moving novel deals with the quest for identity, the return to the essential, travel and change. Voyage léger is a true manifesto for life.

Publication: March 1, 2011
226 pages, 978-2-923530-28-4, Print edition $21.95, Epub / PDF $15,99

Praise for Voyage léger

Mélissa Verreault offers a first novel of great freshness. Sixty-nine very lively, short texts, punctuated by personal confidences, moments subtly felt and appropriately delivered, existential reflections, all in a fluid language, inhabited, swept by fine flashes of humour.

Suzanne Giguère, Le Devoir

The review

The ethereal writing is made of bits of daily life, of details that matter and of round trips between the past and the present.

Josée Lapointe, La Presse

In a clear and simple style, using short chapters, the author explores her thoughts and observes others at the same time, seeking answers to her own drift. The book demands a slow reading to savour all of its details.

Francis Hébert, Voir

It is scathing. There are no frills, no lyricism either. We are here in full realism, often brutal, but that this young woman faces head-on. At the end of this inner journey, she will find herself to be full of life.

Jean Fugère, Radio-Canada / Pourquoi pas dimanche

A nice surprise. In this first novel by journalist Mélissa Verreault, right from the start I fell in love with this heroine suffering from existential malaise, and it is with regret that I left her when turning the last page. … I am glad to have discovered a new author with a style so full of hope !

Fabienne Papin, Primeurs

A first novel all in finesse. A writer to follow.

Châtelaine

A young woman is about to go on a trip to take a step back from her relationship with her spouse. A few metres from the plane, she decides to change destination, leading us into an extremely successful inner monologue. A story filled with sadness that raises universal questions about love and life as a couple.

Magazine Coup de pouce