Current Affairs

Hélène Dorion’s Not Even the Sound of a River arrives in English heavily garlanded. The author of more than thirty works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, Dorion has won a basketful of prestigious prizes within and without Quebec, including a Governor General’s Literary Award. A book of her poems, Mes forêts, is in the curriculum of France’s baccalaureate, making her the first living woman and Quebecer with this honour. The French version of Not Even the Sound of a River, published in Quebec in 2020 as Pas même le bruit d’un fleuve, was a bestseller and a critical success.

In this highly wrought, layered book, the chapter titles often reference other works — for example, “At the end of the suffering there was a door” alludes to a poem by Louise Glück — all of which are identified in an author’s note at the end. Dorion also created a companion Spotify playlist of the music she listened to while writing, from Laurie Anderson to...