“You see a descendant of one of your own ancestors and you say, Hi, there, Pit-à-Thomas-à-Picoté, how’s it going, eh? Then you see someone across the room looks just like you do, and who’s speaking like it’s you who’s talking, and who has the same job as you, and who wouldn’t look down her nose at you just because you’re a cleaning lady who’s never done nothing much and never been nowhere.”

The old woman speaks in a voice rough with the stuff of life. She’s never done nothing much and never been nowhere, but the stories she tells fill a world. In her younger days, she traded favours with sailors to make ends meet; now she wears her body down scrubbing floors. She rants and reminisces, telling stories about herself, her friends and neighbours, the priest and his church, and every other aspect of of life in her village. Bawdy and tenacious, sharp-tongued and warm-hearted, la Sagouine’s voice is the irrepressible voice of Acadie.

With La Sagouine, Antonine Maillet brought Acadian literature to the world’s notice. Since then, Maillet has been awarded the Prix Goncourt (the first non-French citizen to be so honoured) and the Governor General’s Award for her novels Pélagie-la-charette and Don l’Orignal.