Leading Canadian translator, Sheila Fischman, brings these two awarding-winning novels, The Other and Anna Why, to an English-language audience for the first time. Shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction in 2001 and hailed by critics as a masterpiece, The Other begins during the German occupation of the Greek island of Leros. Young Thomas has plans to become a seaman and sail the oceans, but on his way to the harbour, he makes a detour and loses one of his legs in an explosion. Thomas spends years wondering what his life might have been had he turned right instead of left. Then one day, he meets his double - a man who once shared his dreams and was allowed to pursue them. Winner of the Prix litteraire des collegiens in 2005 and a bestseller in Quebec and France, Anna Why recounts the conflict between two caretakers at the Church of the Blessed Virgin: Sister Veroniki, a young novice full of religious zeal, and Sister Nicoletta, a world-wise ex-missionary who believes that only the humane way you practise a faith matters, not the slavish following of a doctrine. As the two nuns try to deal with their differences and their solitude, the deacon Maximos, hired to restore the church's icons, falls in love with Sister Veroniki.

Pan Bouyoucas came to Canada with his Greek parents in 1963. After studies in architecture, he obtained a BFA in film and theatre at Concordia University and worked a few years as a film critic. Since 1975 he has written in French seven novels, a collection of short stories, a book for children, a dozen radio dramas, and stage plays, many of them translated into several languages. From the Main to Mainstreet (a.k.a. Divided We Stand), which he wrote in English, in 1989 for Montrealâ??s Centaur Theatre, was the best-selling show ever staged at Torontoâ??s Canadian Stage Company. The recipient of many literary awards and nominations in Canada and abroad, Bouyoucas is also a talented translator and the winner of the 2002 Quebec Writers Federation Prize for translation.

Pan Bouyoucas' profile page

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