What isthis country, where they squirt Flytox on children before a walk in the woods?Where entire families take valium the night before a wedding? Where onlyfathers, not mothers, can register a birth with the state? Where a woman needsher husband’s permission to take out a bank loan? Where boys are kings andbrothers walk on the other side of the street rather than be seen with theirsisters? Where a dispensation from the bishop is required before one can teach MadameBovary? With irony, power and rhythm, and just the right amount ofhistorical detail, Louise Desjardins tells the story of a fighter.