Books by Antonine Maillet

"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.

""On the seventh day, God rested." He'd had a busy week, forming the earth and everything in it and creating Adam and Eve. But, after all, a week is only a week." In On the Eighth Day, Antonine Maillet imagines a wider, more exuberant world created on "the day when everything is dared and anything is possible." She spins a tale of two brothers -- a giant carved from an oak tree and a scamp shaped out of bread dough -- who set off to find their true inheritance. The story of their travels is a fantastic picaresque -- a cheerful Gulliver's Travels, a comic Pilgrim's Progress, an Acadian Wizard of Oz.

On day, a hay-covered island materializes offshore, an island populated by -- is it possible? -- fleas. Watched by the lighthouse keeper, the fleas take human form: the ruler, Don l'Orignal, with his moose-antler crown; his brave lieutenants; the doughty charwoman, spy, and rabble-rouser, La Sagouine; and all their friends and relations. Antonine Maillet's provocative and entertaining fantasy pits the clever, uncouth Flea Islanders against the almost as clever but far more civilized villagers. The unexpected outcome holds up a mirror to comical, earthy, and poignant human nature as well as to Acadian history.

Antonine Maillet, prodigieuse Acadienne, femme et ecrivaine tisse habilement les fils du mythe, de la patrie et de lendemains nouveaux dans cette inspirante allocution prononcee a l'occasion de la ceremonie de remise de la Medaille Symons.En vritable artiste, Maillet se fait crateur de sons, de couleurs, de formes ou de mots Surgit alors un immense territoire de montagnes et d'ocans, d'histoire et d'histoires - tantt mythiques, tantt modernes, tour tour sous le signe de l'pope flamboyante et de l'intimit illumine par un feu de foyer. Un pays la fois jeune et vieux, qui a deux langues, un riche subconscient, des aspirations. En guise de conclusion, elle raconte une histoire que Rabelais avait crite l'anne mme de la dcouverte de l'Amrique.Sous le couvert du conte, cette grande dame lance un puissant appel la solidarit, la protection des cultures et la sauvegarde des langues. Son pays aux multiples visages et fait de paradoxes, demande-t-elle, saura-t-il accorder leur juste place aux peuples d'origines diverses? Connue notamment pour sa pice de thtre La Sagouine (1971), Mme Maillet n'en a pas moins remport le prestigieux Prix Goncourt pour son roman Plagie-la-Charette, devenant du coup la premire laurate non europenne du plus grand prix littraire de France. Depuis, elle a publi plus de 20 romans, une multitude de pices de thtre et des traductions d'auteurs clbres tels que Shakespeare. Elle est rcipiendaire de nombreux prix, dont le Prix littraire du Gouverneur gnral, la Mdaille Lorne Pierce de la Socit royale du Canada, et le Prix Goncourt.