La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes (The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches

On the Quebec bestseller lists for more than thirty-two weeks, a finalist of France’s prestigious Prix Renaudot, and translated into more than XX languages, The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches is the stunning tale of two siblings growing up isolated from the outside world.
Alone with their authoritarian father on an immense estate surrounded by a forest, the pair speak a language and inhabit a universe of their own making. When their father commits suicide, they are forced into contact with the villagers beyond the enclosure and their cloak of romance and superstition quickly falls away to reveal not only the startling truth about themselves to the world but the startling truth about the world to themselves.
Balancing naïveté with carnality, Soucy creates a powerfully gripping story where nothing is as it first seems. His signature playfulness, surprising twists, and fascination with guilt, cruelty, and violence make The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches a resounding triumph.

(Text: House of Anansi Press)


“An extraordinary and exceptional writer, [...] a work which naturally places Gaétan Soucy among the greatest of Quebec writers.”
Réginald Martel, La Presse

“A masterpiece. A shocking work, written with great skill.”
Robert Lévesque, Midi-Culture, Société Radio-Canada

“Gaétan Soucy earns himself a place among the best novelists writing in French today. He is unquestionably the most important revelation of these past few years.”
Pierre Lepape, Le Monde

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