HORSEFLY

A terrifying tale about the ways in which we try to dominate nature, and how nature will, inevitably, wreak retribution upon us.

In 1942, a young entomologist, Thomas, is sent to a remote island to work on biological weapons for the Allied military. The scientists live like prisoners while they look for the perfect carrier for anthrax among the island's many insects. In 2024, in the same region of Quebec, a heat wave unleashes swarms of horseflies while humans fall prey to strange flights of rage. Theodore is living a simple life, working double shifts and drinking to forget, when a horsefly bite stirs him from his apathy and he impulsively kidnaps from the nursing home his grandfather Emeril, whose dementia has him living in the past during the Grosse Ile biological weapons experiments. The horseflies, meanwhile, know a few secrets. MIREILLE GAGNÉ was born in Isle-aux-Grues and lives in Quebec City. Since 2010, she has published books of poetry, short stories, and the remarkable novel Le lièvre d'Amérique (2020), which 'possesses a universal wisdom, the kind that is passed down from generation to generation and from which we too often lose our way.' PABLO STRAUSS is the translator of twelve works of fiction, several graphic novels, and the screenplay of one feature film, White Dog (2022). He is a threetime finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation, most recently for The Country Will Bring Us No Peace (Coach House Books, 2020). The Dishwasher, his translation of Stéphane Larue's Le plongeur, won the 2020 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.