Sandra Beck

Sandra Beck paints a very unusual portrait of a lady. This is a book about many things: the struggling antics of adolescence, the banal delusions of solitude, the city of Montreal. But it is, above all, a deeply moving tribute to a woman who is both present and absent on every page. Who is Sandra Beck? She is a mother, a wife, a musician, a manager; she is the ghost in the seat behind us. Her story is told in the voices of others — namely, her daughter, the wordstruck and lovestruck Josée; and her husband, the police chief and TV personality P. F. Bastarache.