When his parents tell him that they’re splitting up and his dad leaves home, a ten-year-old boy begs the sky to help him. The next day, a storm covers Montreal in a deep layer of ice. As the power goes out across the city and the temperature drops, people must help each other in order to survive. The boy is convinced that it’s all his fault.

But at least one neighbourhood will never be the same. Julie, the exotic dancer who lives across the street, helps Boris, an eccentric Russian mathematician, save his fish from the cold weather. And the urbane Michel and Simon open their door to Alexis, their homophobic neighbour, and his son. Three days in the frozen city will turn their lives upside down—but will the ice storm bring the boy’s parents back together?

Sparklingly funny, wise and joyful, Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather reminds us that life is full of the unexpected, and that happy endings might still be possible.

Praise for Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather

"If it's possible to romp through a natural disaster, Pierre Szalowski does just that. Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather offers a giddy, open-hearted look at the 1998 Ice Storm we might all wish we’d lived through." - Trevor Cole, author of Practical Jean

"A little boy looks out the window of his Montreal apartment and prays for a natural disaster to prevent his parents from divorcing. That is how this magical novel begins. During the course of Pierre Szalowski’s ice storm, the lives of the tenants in a building are turned on their heads. They invite strangers into their homes, discover incredible secrets, solve scientific enigmas and fall in love. Leave it to Pierre Szalowski to use a natural disaster as a setting to examine what it means to be openhearted, happy and Quebecoise. It is an exquisite snow globe of a book. Pick it up, turn it upside down and watch the storm begin to fall on Montreal all over again." - Heather O'Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals

PIERRE SZALOWSKI has been a press photographer, an artistic director in marketing and the vice president of Ubisoft. These days, he is a screenwriter and novelist. Fish Change Direction In Cold Weather is his first book and was an international bestseller. Follow him on twitter @pierreszalowski.

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Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather

by Melwyk

This is a fable about community, set in Montreal during the great 1998 Ice Storm. The young narrator discovers that his parents are going to break up, and in despair he calls to the sky to help him. The next morning, the Ice Storm begins, and our narrator is convinced he is responsible.

The Ice Storm results in a disparate group of neighbours having to depend on one another. It's true that very often (perhaps especially in large cities) we do not know our neighbours, preferring to keep some distance. In the few blocks that this story takes place, there are a handful of eccentrics who are forced by the unusual conditions to finally interact. If the story was made up of a bunch of perfectly normal people who help each other out for a day or two, it would prove fairly dull, I think -- I loved the fact that all of the characters had something notably odd or intriguing, a bit of a back story, to jazz things up a bit. On one block in Montreal, I would be surprised NOT to find this many unusual characters!

Anyhow, this was a light, entertaining read in the "French" tradition -- brief, quirky, and without fear of sentiment ;)