Author Michèle Laliberté plans to talk about her debut novel “Nativa” at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, January 21, in a conversation with Museum LA board member Camden Martin via Zoom.
This free public program, hosted by the Lewiston Public Library and Museum LA, will be streamed on the library’s Facebook page. This program will take place entirely in French.
Michele Laliberte Photo added
“Nativa” is the fictional diary of Florida Faubert, the author’s paternal grandmother. It begins with the story of two children born in Sainte-Cécile de Valleyfield, Quebec, separated from their families and sent to Lewiston in 1895: Florida with her aunt Odile, and Nativa at the orphanage of the Parisian nuns of Notre-Dame de If we. .
Back in Canada a few years later, Nativa became Camillien Houde’s mistress. If the former bank manager remains a famous figure of the Conservative Party until today, the one who joined him on the sly in his suite at the Hôtel Mont-Royal in Montreal will have known only shadow and ( disillusionment.
The result of meticulous research and a collection of family anecdotes, this hybrid text combines Florida’s imagined testimony with family photos and archival documents. Through a singular balance between fiction and reality, like the life of Faubert, Laliberté breaks a century-old taboo to rehabilitate the memory of his great-aunt and, at the same time, take a new look at an important figure in the national history of Quebec.
Laliberté has been teaching languages, literature, translation, cinema and writing for over 30 years. She began teaching German in Montreal, then translation, literature and French at several different institutions in Burlington and Montreal, including McGill University and the University of Montreal. In 2011, she joined the Université du Québec en Outaouais, where she is now a full professor in translation.
Her main area of research is theatrical and audiovisual translation, literary writing and film adaptation. Nativa is her first novel.
Martin was born in Lewiston and raised in Auburn. He attended Edward Little High School until his second year before attending Albert Camus High School in Nimes, France. He was able to do this after winning a scholarship that allowed him to study in France for two months, which resulted in him studying there for two years, his first and last year.
After graduating from both Edward Little and Lycée Albert Camus, Camden took a year off where he worked in French language customer service. Thereafter, he went to school at Cégep Saint Félicien in Quebec, where he studied environmental protection. Back in Maine, he worked at Museum LA before becoming a French teacher at Saint Dominic Academy.
Copies of “Nativa” are available for purchase directly from the editor.
The Zoom registration link will be posted on the Lewiston Public Library website, lplonline.org, and Facebook page before the program. For more information, contact LPL’s Adult and Adolescent Services office at 207-513-3135 or [email protected].
” Previous
One Longfellow Square will host Loudon Wainwright III
Following ”
Related stories
