Spring Tides

“Poulin is a master of imagery and dialogue: They rest like froth on top of something much more murky and morose: an underlying fear of emptiness.”—The Silhouette

Peacefully employed on an uninhabited island, a translator of comic strips (codename Teddy Bear) lives in the company of his dictionaries, his marauding cat, Matousalem, and his tennis ball machine (the Prince). Convinced that the translator’s happiness is in jeopardy, his boss helicopters in a few solitude-seeking companions—the beautiful and elusive Marie with her flirtatious cat Moustache; the seductive nudist, Featherhead; Professor Moccasin, the half-deaf comic strip scholar; the moody and contradictory Author; the Ordinary Man; and the Organizer, sent to “sensitize the population.” As the spring tides drag ocean debris onto the shore, Teddy Bear and his companions seek out their own solitudes in this hilarious philosophical fable.

Jacques Poulin’s novels include Volkswagen Blues (a finalist for Canada Reads 2005) and La tournée d’automne (Autumn Rounds). Poulin received the 1978 Governor General’s Award for Les Grandes Marées(Spring Tides) and the Molson Prize for lifetime artistic contribution in 1990 and 2000. He lives in Québec.

A splendid introduction to "one of the finest and most underrated novelists in Quebec" (The Globe and Mail).

Publishers Weekly

Canadian novelist Poulin's edgy allegory finds Teddy Bear, a translator of newspaper comic strips, living in happy isolation on a remote island, with his cat, his reference books, internal dialogues with a possibly imaginary brother and the Prince, a robotic tennis opponent. When "the boss" who commissions Teddy's work decides the cat must be lonely, the boss flies in on his helicopter a "lady cat" and black-eyed Marie. Felines and humans pair off, but their idyll is interrupted by the arrival of an eclectic parade of new residents introduced by the boss to make Teddy happy: the boss's free-spirit wife, Featherhead; a French comic book scholar; a muttering Author; a practical Ordinary Man; and an Organizer who is sent to "sensitize the population." As Teddy learns the true fate of his painstakingly wrought weekly translations and winter approaches, the earnest silliness turns dark. It's as funny and fresh now as when it was first published (in French) in 1978. (June)

Poulin is widely considered the most North American of Quebec French-writing authors. His published novels include Volkswagon Blues (1984) and La tournée d'automne (Autumn Rounds, 1993). Among his many awards are the 1978 Governor General's award for Les Grandes Marees and the Molson Prize for lifetime artistic contribution in 1990 and 2000. He lives in Quebec. Sheila Fischman has published more than 125 translations of contemporary French-Canadian novels. She was twice awarded the Canada Council translation prize and received the Governor General's literary award in 1998. In 2002, Fischman was named to the Order of Canada, in recognition of the quality of her translations and unparalleled contribution to Canadian culture. She lives in Montreal.