Louis, a young queer man, lives in Pointe-aux-Trembles, in Montreal's east end, with his rap-obsessed, schizophrenic brother and their terminally ill father. While working at a Tim Horton's, Louis dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian.

Delivered in short, addictive chapters, All Kidding Aside deftly juggles themes of love, class, and grief with poetic mockery and spare, electric banter.

Jean-Christophe Réhel's profile page

A three-time nominee for the Journey Prize, Neil Smith published his debut collection, Bang Crunch, with Knopf Canada in 2007. It was later published in America, Britain, France, Germany, and India. It was chosen as a best Book of the year by the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail. His second book, a novel called Boo, was published in May 2015 with Vintage Books in the U.S., William Heinemann in Britain, and Knopf in Canada.

Neil Smith's profile page

"All Kidding Aside (...) takes its readers on a journey into a world woven with turbulent adventures, offering a deep and captivating exploration of brotherly love, precarity, and grief." Alice Laforce, le Nouvelliste

"In Jean-Christophe Réhel's (...) 'love letter to comedy,' the poet and screenwriter wrestles with themes that challenge, yet never dip into pity. The winner of the Prix littéraire des collégiens celebrates the beauty the everyday... and laughs about it."Radio-Canada

"Réhel pulls us into a rather gloomy universe of messy bedrooms, boot-slopped kitchen floors, soulless Timbits, objects of thoughtless gluttony, chunks of sandwich scattered in the street, carrots jammed into the bottom of a snowman's belly. But 'in the midst of all this baseness,' as Brassens might say, we witness real and touching human connections.? François Lavallée, Nuit Blanche

Reviews of Tatouine:

?A joy to read!? Shelagh Rogers, CBC's The Next Chapter

“A novel of inventive, self-deprecating humour.? - Jade Colbert, The Globe and Mail