About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
Formally inventive, Simon Brousseau’s Synapses orchestrates a series of beautifully crafted literary snapshots, each involving a different character, eloquently presented using a sole, twisting and turning, stylistically accomplished sentence written in the second-person singular. Brousseau depicts a vast society of differing psyches and souls, all unique and idiosyncratic, yet interconnected, quasi neurologically, in a dialogic network of humanity. With Synapses, his first novel, Brousseau realizes the surprising feat of a pointillist literary masterpiece.
Contributor Notes
Simon Brousseau was born in Quebec City in 1985. He lives in Montreal and teaches literature at Jean-de-Brébeuf College. In 2014 at Université du Québec à Montréal he defended his dissertation on the work of David Foster Wallace and the question of literary influence (to be published as an essay by Éditions Nota Bene in 2019) . Synapses, his first novel (Cheval d’août, 2016) was a finalist in the 2017 Grand Prix du livre de Montréal, and will be published in English with Talonbooks in 2019, translated by Pablo Strauss. Les fins heureuses (Cheval d’août, 2018) is a collection of short stories.
Awards
- Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Award for Translation
Editorial Reviews
"By situating the reader in a multitude of perspectives, [Brousseau] pushes the limits of human empathy in ways that a traditional novel cannot"
—Montréal Review of Books
"The mind searches for and finds pleasing dialogic connections between the snapshots."
—Ian MacLean, The Malahat Review
