Motor City Meltdown

In The Future’s reimagined history, the French never ceded Fort Détroit to the British in 1760, and the British never ceded it to the United States as part of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Instead, the community has remained proudly French Canadian for centuries. (“Never forget we were two shakes away from becomin’ American,” a current resident proclaims.) But while the Motor City was once “full of people, full of music, full of words,” it now struggles in economic ruin — ravaged by pollution, poverty, and crime. It is “a place devoid of faith or law,” with poison in the river and pictures of missing children posted everywhere.

Against this bleak backdrop, Catherine Leroux’s latest novel — published as L’avenir in 2020 and now translated into English by the award-winning Susan Ouriou — centres on heartbroken and beleaguered Gloria, who is reeling after the murder of her estranged daughter, Judith, and the disappearance of her young granddaughters...