Boundary by Andree A Michaud #BlogTour @noexitpress #BoundaryBook

It's the Summer of 1967. The sun shines brightly over Boundary Pond, a holiday haven on the US-Canadian border. Families relax in the heat, happy and carefree. Hours tick away to the sound of radios playing 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' and 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. Children run along the beach as the heady smell of barbecues fills the air.

Zaza Mulligan and Sissy Morgan, with their long, tanned legs and silky hair, relish their growing reputation as the red and blonde Lolitas. Life seems idyllic. 

But then Zaza disappears, and the skies begin to cloud over...

Boundary by Andree A Michaud is published in hardback by No Exit Press on 23 March 2017. It is translated by Donald Winkler.

Boundary is a crime novel, it is also a novel of great beauty, of lyrical and ethereal prose that is often challenging and complex, but gradually draws in the reader as the story unfurls.

Boundary Pond is an all-American holiday park, nestled on the Canadian border and popular with families. The summer of 1967 is warm and the strains of popular music flavour the air, This is a place of idyll and fun, relaxation and games. Until the body of teenage Zaza is discovered, caught in a hunter's trap. Boundary begins to feel darker and more oppressive, with stories from the past revealed. Ghostly obsessions and long-ago passions become a central feature of the story.
Zaza and her friend Sissy are well known within the small Boundary community. Self-centred, haughty, admired, feared, they are the centre of their own worlds, and when Sissy disappears too, residents become overwhelmed with suspicion, grief and fear.

Told from different perspectives, primarily through the investigating police officer and young local girl Andree, the author sows many seeds into the reader's mind. She creates an intimacy that can feel oppressive and quite dark at times, yet it still feels like a thriller.

The atmosphere of the setting is wonderfully done, The expertly described location adds a depth to this story and thrusts the reader right into the heart of that small holiday park, that has big big secrets.

Boundary is a stimulating and elaborate story, sometimes it can be difficult to follow, it certainly takes a little time to settle into. However, it is immensely satifsying and the reader is rewarded with fine writing, elegantly crafted characters and a immersive setting.

My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.

Andrée A Michaud is a two-time winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction (Le Ravissement in 2001 and Bondrée in 2014) and the recipient of the Arthur Ellis Award and the Prix Saint-Pacôme for best crime novel forBondrée, as well as the 2006 Prix Ringuet for Mirror Lake (adapted for the big screen in 2013). As she has done since her very first novel, Michaud fashions an eminently personal work that never ceases to garner praise from critics and avid mystery readers alike. In 2010, her thriller Lazy Bird, set to the rhythms of jazz, was published by Les Éditions du Seuil in France, as part of the Point Noir Collection.

Donald Winkler is a Canadian Documentary maker and French-to-English literary translator. He won the Canada's Governor General's Award for French to English translation in 1994, 2011 and 2013.

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