Atonement [Paperback]

Gaetan Soucy (Author), Sheila Fischman (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2007

Twenty years after being chased out of his tiny village, Louis Bapaume returns to Saint-Aldor to make amends. Over the course of one bright winter solstice, Bapaume confronts old neighbors and villagers and encounters haunting figures he can't quite recognize. But there’s only one person he seeks: the twin girl he taught to read music and to whom he wishes to atone. In this intricate, disquieting novel, the line between reality and dreams shifts in the swirling storm of one man’s conscience.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Gaétan Soucy has written three novels, all published to rave reviews in Quebec and abroad. He lives in Montreal. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: House of Anansi Press; Tra edition (November 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887847803
• ISBN-13: 978-0887847806
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,842,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL WORK, April 23, 2002

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Atonement: A Novel (Paperback)

After reading Gaetan Soucy's incredible THE LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS TOO FOND OF MATCHES, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this earlier novel -- and I was not disappointed. Soucy is one of my favorite discoveries in literature.

This slim volume (104 pages) drew me quickly into the author's created world, weaving the story with a sense of mystery unlike anything I've ever read. There is a sense of starkly-drawn, detailed images combined with an eerie sense of unreality at work here -- there were times when I didn't know which was which. The feelings that torment the main character, organist-composer Louis Bapaume, come alive within these pages -- his pain and loss, his guilt, his love of his music, all become real within us as we experience the strange events depicted here. Bapaume has journeyed from his home in Montreal to the small, remote village of Saint-Aldor -- but for what purpose? The mystery of this unfolds slowly, like a delicate flower, in Soucy's hands -- we learn a little more of Bapaume's mission as we learn a little more about him, and we are left 'hanging' until the final pages.

I was so taken with the story and the author's style that I re-read the book immediately upon finishing it. The overall effect is not unlike viewing a painting -- every painstakingly worked detail is even more beautiful upon re-examination. I only wish there were more works available in English by this author.

3.0 out of 5 stars The Cold Snows Of A Dream, December 21, 2004

By 

Daniel Myers (Greenville, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Atonement: A Novel (Paperback)

This book is wonderful in its conveying of a dreamy feeling of winterland lostness. Other than that, I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. And perhaps this is the point. The novelette is filtered through the mind of a protagonist who, aside from an abiding interest in music, admits that he is losing his memory and, ergo, his mind. One finishes the book in the sort of way one, oddly, finishes an Emily Dickinson poem, deeply touched, but not exactly sure of the meaning-Or, in this case, if, truth be known, there is one.

I find myself returning to the Wittgenstein citation that prefaces Soucy's book. To paraphrase: How do we know that what we are remembering is the past?.....Or, one would like to add, that what we are reading has meaning?

3.0 out of 5 stars This book left me totally baffled., October 13, 2000

By 

ThymeWaits "reader" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atonement: A Novel (Paperback)

On the back cover, under the title "Praise for the French edition of Atonement," a quote from Voir states: "... takes you through a thick fog and finishes by immersing you in it fully." Then realize that you are going to read that book in translation. Easy to read, but difficult to understand. The blending of fantasy and reality is so complete I could not distinguish between them. May require a few rereadings, but is it worth it?