Jean-Marc has fallen in love. The object of his affection is Mathieu, a young actor working as a salesman at Eaton’s while waiting for his big break. But Jean-Marc, a fusty academic, is not sure about being able to make room in his life for Mathieu’s four-year-old son, Sébastien.
Considered daring and even shocking for some when it first appeared in the 1980s, this story has stood the test of time and revealed itself to be an enduring addition to Tremblay’s sweeping, compassionate imagination of human sensibility and passion.
The Heart Laid Bare marks a significant departure for Michel Tremblay, being the first of his mature novels not set in the semi-autobiographical milieu of his childhood. Yet this thoroughly contemporary love story is told with all the warmth and empathy so characteristic of all his work.