Iguana

Short-listed for the 2004 Governor General's Award for Translation (French to English), winner of the 2002 Prix Anne-Hebert, of the 2002 Prix Odyssee for best first novel and of the 2001Prix France-Quebec/Jean Hamelin Set on the rugged north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, The Iguana tells the realistic, yet fabulous, story of an extraordinary friendship between two young boys who appear to have nothing in common except a tragic loneliness. Recently, the narrator's safe world was shattered by a snowmobile accident involving his parents, and he was taken in by his grandparents in the village of Ferland. Slowly, he befriends his classmate Luc Bezeau, a misfit who takes refuge from a brutal home environment in a magical undersea realm inhabited by fantastic beings. Together, the boys construct new reasons for living, which launch them on a wild, adventurous search.