Les sables mouvants / Shifting Sands

This bilingual edition is the first English translation of Aquin’s groundbreaking novella. It is also the first time it appears in French, outside of the multi-volume critical edition. In this novella the young Aquin turns away from ordinary narrative towards the signature qualities of his later writing. Alone in exotic Naples, an impassioned François anticipates the arrival of his girlfriend Hélène. Uncertainty and impatience warp his waiting into an obsessive mélange of recollection and speculation. His interior monologue threads its way through a disorienting universe of a claustrophobic dilapidated hotel room, hostile incomprehension in the streets of a foreign city, and a train station where the anticipated rendezvous cannot occur. Unremitting psychological exploration drives the narrator towards an extreme personal apocalypse. Frank sexuality, grotesque imagery and an autobiographical context helped to keep this story from previously being published for decades. Joseph Jones’ accompanying essay situates the novella with reference to other works in which psychic conditions generate a striking literary representation that appears to operate largely outside of any conscious tradition. Included also is an “Appreciation” by Marie-Claire Blais.

“What touches us so much, in this novella worthy of Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” is this cry that arises from the inner captivity of its author.”
— Marie-Claire Blais, Governor General’s Award Winner, 1996