Mon village, la côte

Yolande Bastarache left us too soon. Reading the dozen short stories in this posthumous collection feels like stumbling upon a sunny, ocean-breeze-swept secret garden inhabited by endearing characters, both fictional and real.

I must jot this story down in my diary. It will be of no interest to the adults. My friend Juliette is a well-behaved girl who never lies. She only speaks when she has something to say. Often, Annie and I wonder what is going on in her head. So on the day she started telling us this upsetting story, which I will relate, Annie and I listened to her with great respect. I must recount everything about his day, when the inconceivable and total outrage collided to shatter a life.

Entering Yolande Bastaraches world means meeting children happily skipping down village streets, eccentric aunts hiding well-kept secrets, and other colourful characters, each with their own worries, but all endearing and full of life. Its discovering a world of secrets and unexpected kindness.

Yolande Bastarache, avid reader, and occasional writer, was the wife of former Supreme Court of Canada justice Michel Bastarache.

Published in French.