Swallowed

Réjean Ducharme
Translated by Madeleine Stratford

"[T]he result [of reading the new translation] is wild. Page-long paragraphs see Berenice contemplate world domination, analyze her own skeleton, and rave about sex. She mashes up mythologies, going from philosophical to crude in staccato outbursts. Many passages present a kind of phenomenology of rage at her subordination by her parents, the surrounding society, and even language itself. In response, she takes words and reshapes them, flinging insults and inventing narratives as a form of armour to protect her individuality." — Amanda Perry, Literary Review of Canada

"More than just a marquee translation of 2021, Stratford’s contemporary interpretation of this 1966 Québécois masterpiece (yes, masterpiece is the word for it) should create a crater of literary significance that spans at least a decade in either direction, a five-alarm barnburner of a book whose inferno is likely observable from space." – Justin Walls, Du Mois Monthly