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Novel
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From award-winning translator Sheila Fischman comes a new novel by bestselling Quebec author and Canada Reads finalist Jacques Poulin, English Is Not a Magic Language. A follow-up to the author’s critically acclaimed 2006 novel, Translation Is a Love Affair (Archipelago Books), here we meet reader-for-hire Francis, the little brother of novelist Jack Waterman, whom longtime Poulin fans will remember from previous works as the author’s loose alter ego. One call and Francis will arrive at your door in his Mini Cooper, ready to read. He’s partial to works about the Natives, the fur trade, and the immense territory the French once held in North America. Altogether, Francis’s ordinary life in the shadows of his better-known brother could almost be described as happy. But what is he to make of a missed rendezvous with a mysterious woman? And why have the Mounties suddenly started following him in front of the Plains of Abraham, where New France fell to the British?
Advance Praise:
This new novel by Poulin is an elegy to lasting love.–Robert Lévesque, La Presse
Read for the beauty of the text: precision, rigor, and simplicity … The qualities of the heart as well as his thoughts filter through the characters. –Anne-Marie Voisard, Le Soleil
Reviews
A French American consciousness permeates the novel, and the story of formation of Canadian nationality is in subtlety. History, adventure, love, celebration of reading and the essence of simplicity imbues English is Not a Magic Language. – World Translations Review
This new novel by Poulin is an elegy to lasting love.–Robert Lévesque, La Presse
Read for the beauty of the text: precision, rigor, and simplicity … The qualities of the heart as well as his thoughts filter through the characters. –Anne-Marie Voisard, Le Soleil
English is not a Magic Language is a delightfully magical story.It is one book that will certainly enhance your love of reading.–The Miramichi Reader
Description from the publisher Véhicule Press, seen in October 2026 · Source ↗
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