Bartleby the Scrivener meets Catch-22 in this charmingly sardonic tale of love, war and fertilizer.

WINNER OF THE PRIX DES COLLAGIENS

Simon turned his thoughts to her daily. There were few enough
of them, but each one lingered. He imagined their life together.
Sometimes even their children’s lives. Sometimes he set his fantasies in Spain, sometimes America, less often Peru– so many settings, all of which turned into the bedroom, eventually.

It’s 1862, and Spain is a little rueful about letting Peru have their independence. Or, more importantly, letting Peru have the guano – ‘white gold’ – on the Chincha Islands. Simon is the ship’s recorder on a scientific – okay, military – expedition when he meets, in Callao, the mysterious Montse. She asks of him only that he write her letters. Which he utterly fails to do. As military tensions escalate, so does Simon’s unabated lust for Montse – even if he can’t bring himself to do anything about it.

“A novel that makes you want to read long passages out loud – or at least memorize snippets, just for the music of the words of Québec writer Louis Carmain.” — La Presse (translated from the French)