The Unknown Huntsman

A strange and anonymous narrator, an unnamed village, an unsolved murder, a mysterious huntsman, and a wisdom tooth extraction gone terribly wrong. There’s no shortage of intrigue in this offbeat debut novel by Jean-Michel Fortier. A bewitching story full of dark humor and laugh-out-loud absurdity, The Unknown Huntsman is full of gossipy run-on sentences and snide remarks from the narrator. It reads like an allegory or dark adult fairy tale, and its motto could be: “If you don’t want answers, don’t ask questions.”

AUTHOR

Katherine Hastings

AUTHOR

Jean-Michel Fortier

Jean-Michel Fortier was born in Quebec City in 1987. He completed a master’s degree in literature at Université Laval before moving to Montreal, where he currently works as a copy editor. The Unknown Huntsman is his first book. After immigrating to Canada from the U.K., Katherine Hastings spent ten years in Ontario before moving to Montreal, where she completed a degree in modern languages at McGill University. She has worked as a Quebec-based translator and copyeditor since 1995. This is her first stab at literary translation, a field she looks forward to exploring further.

Reviews

“A thoroughly enjoyable read . . . If you like offbeat, avant-garde humour with a little darkness, then The Unknown Huntsman will appeal . . . translator Katherine Hastings has performed a worthy service to English readers, for I cannot imagine this book being any more humorous in its original language.” —James Fisher, miramichireader.ca

“A debut novel that deserves a place alongside the best, The Unknown Huntsman breaks with traditional conventions of genre and narration, its avant-garde style bringing an exciting new perspective to Quebec literature. A must for readers for whom literature is a weapon of mass instruction.” —Émilie Pilote, Les Méconnus

“An absurdist fable bringing to mind Pirandello, Fortier’s debut is a dark commentary on community and intolerance.” —Jade Colbert, Globe & Mail

“A surreal, offbeat look at life in a small, unnamed village . . . This is an intriguing and original novel, the ending of which does not wrap things up neatly so much as introduce an entirely new level of absurdity.” —Publishers Weekly

“The absurdity, irony, and dark humour make this an exuberant novel and a compelling read. The Unknown Huntsman is . . . highly original, shifting between levity and darkness with a masterful hand.” —Rhonda Mullins, Malahat Review