We Were The Salt of the Sea by Roxanne Bouchard @RBouchard72 @OrendaBooks Translated by David Warriner @givemeawave

Truth lingers in murky waters…
As Montrealer Catherine Day sets foot in a remote fishing village and starts asking around about her birth mother, the body of a woman dredges up in a fisherman's nets. Not just any woman, though: Marie Garant, an elusive, nomadic sailor and unbridled beauty who once tied many a man's heart in knots. Detective Sergeant Joaquin Morales, newly drafted to the area from the suburbs of Montreal, barely has time to unpack his suitcase before he's thrown into the deep end of the investigation. 

On Quebec's outlying Gaspé Peninsula, the truth can be slippery, especially down on the fishermen's wharves. Interviews drift into idle chit-chat, evidence floats off with the tide and the truth lingers in murky waters. It's enough to make DS Morales reach straight for a large whisky…

Both a dark and consuming crime thriller and a lyrical, poetic ode to the sea, We Were the Salt of the Sea is a stunning, page-turning novel, from one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction.

We Were The Salt of the Sea by Roxanne Bouchard was published in paperback by Orenda Books on 30 March 2018, and is translated by David Warriner.

Set in a small fishing village on Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula, this novel is an entrancing, beautifully written story filled with incredibly created characters and a plot that intrigues and haunts.

Catherine Day wants to find out about her birth mother. She's from Montreal and the tiny, close-knit community that she finds is like no other place that she's been to. The people who she meets are strange, but not strangers, for they tell her more about her history than she could ever imagine, and it becomes clear that Catherine's mother was not particularly liked.

When the body of Marie Garant; another well-known and often talked about local woman, is discovered in a fishing net, the story becomes faster and the crime thriller element of the novel is wholly apparent. However, the writing and imagery continues to stun the reader, becoming almost song-like at times, and there's humour too. I laughed, a lot. This author's delightful characters, and their dialogue is irresistible; I belly-laughed, more than once!

Atmospheric, but sometimes claustrophobic, We Were The Salt of the Sea is probably one of the most difficult stories that I've tried to write about. It's not one thing, it's a combination of many things, and that combination equals a book that truly is a joy to read. Bravo Roxanne Bouchard!

Roxanne Bouchard reads a lot, but she laughs even more. Her first novel, Whisky et Paraboles, garnered an array of prestigious awards in Quebec and caught the attention of British researcher, Jasmina Bolfek-Radovani, of the University of Westminster, who saw for herself how Roxanne weaves poetry and geography together to delve into her characters’ intimate worlds. This desire for intimacy permeates all of Roxanne’s novels, as well as her play, J’t’aime encore, and her published essays, which have focused on the human aspects and impacts of the military. In 2013, the publication of her private correspondence with Corporal Patrick Kègle, entitled En terrain miné, started quite the conversation.

This thought-provoking discussion about the need for weapons was a stepping-stone for Roxanne to undertake unprecedented research at Quebec’s largest military base. Meeting and speaking with dozens of women and men who served in Afghanistan in 2009 inspired her to write a collection of hard-hitting short stories, Cinq balles dans la tête, slated for publication in autumn 2017.

We Were the Salt of the Sea is Roxanne Bouchard’s fifth novel, and the first to be translated into English. As much a love story and a nostalgic tale as it is a crime novel, it was shortlisted for a number of crime fiction and maritime literature awards in Quebec and France. It haunts people’s memories, ties seafarers’ hearts in knots and seeps its way into every nook and cranny, but most importantly, the sea in this book is a calling for us all to set our sails to the wind. Roxanne Bouchard is currently writing an essay on literary creativity and plotting Detective Sergeant Joaquin Moralès’s next investigation. 

Find out more at www.roxannebouchard.com
Follow her on Twitter @RBouchard72

David Warriner grew up in England and developed a passion for French at an early age. After graduating from Oxford University he moved to Quebec and soon started his career in translation. David freelanced for a year with the company he created, Britboy Translations. Next, he was hired as an in-house translator for a prominent Quebec-based insurance company.

A few years later David was headhunted by another financial group to build a translation service in Quebec City and Montreal. Here he developed valuable skills in recruiting and managing a team of in-house translators and freelancers. David helped to bridge the language gap between the Quebec and Toronto offices by liaising with people at all levels of the company.

David worked in-house in the insurance and financial services field for eight years. He translated documents of a corporate, legal and contractual nature as well as marketing and communications texts. David and his team were also responsible for creating English product names and slogans.

Next, David moved to the West Coast with his family to coordinate the French translation needs of a government ministry. A year later, he decided to launch his own business again, this time on the strength of a decade’s experience in the industry.

W Translation works with Canada’s official languages and primarily caters to your French-to-English translation needs. We can also edit and proofread your existing English documents.

Find out more at www.watranslation.ca
Follow him on Twitter @givemeawave