After the Red Night by Christiane Frenette , Translated by Sheila Fischman
In 1950, a devastating fire breaks out in Rimouski. Thomas survives the blaze, but loses his memory and is institutionalized. A shell of his former self, he pieces together a makeshift existence by becoming a gardener. Upon his release, two childhood friends, Marie and Romain, hire Thomas to do their landscaping. As time passes, Marie begins to see Thomas as her escape from the unendurable.
In 2002, Romain and Marie’s daughter Lou returns home after running away to Chicago thirty years earlier. She brings along her husband, who has suffered a brain aneurysm that has imprisoned him in his own body. Their presence reminds Marie of her own past, of the connections she never asked for, and the ties she can never break.
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