Book Launch: Fragile Like a Bomb, translated by Natalia Hero

Not fragile like a flower, fragile like a bomb.”

Join us for the launch of Fragile Like a Bomb by Catherine Fred Lavarenne, translated by Natalia Hero.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Stéphanie is recruited by a left-wing provincial party to run in their upcoming elections. After a surprise victory she is, despite her inexperience, appointed Québec’s Minister of Culture. As she navigates her new role, a wave of #MeToo denunciations erupts in the literary world. Stéphanie begins to make connections between her own experiences and those of the survivors daring to speak out. Fragile Like a Bomb is a powerful, illuminating novel that reveals how men’s violence against women is both intimate and institutional, shaping everything from personal memory to public culture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR & TRANSLATOR

Catherine Fred Lavarenne has worked as a college instructor, a political attaché for the City of Montréal, and a project manager for rights advocacy at the Québec LGBT Council. Her first novel, Quelques lieux de Constance, was published by Héliotrope in 2018. Fragile Like a Bomb is her second novel. She lives in Montreal.

Natalia Hero is a Montreal-based writer and literary translator. Her debut novella, Hum, was published in 2018 by Metatron Press. Her translations include Valid: Dystopian Autofiction by Chris Bergeron, Thirty by Marie Darsigny, In the End They Told Them All to Get Lost by Laurence Leduc-Primeau, and God’s Zoo by Pablo Urbanyi.