Though both parents were alive, Richard and his four brothers lived in an orphanage for five years! It was in 1959, five floors of dormitories at fifty children a floor, with nuns’ cells on each floor. Richard recalls that, “as in all concentration-camp systems, daily life is dull and repetitive.” Some get up, make their beds, say their prayers, while others line up for the strap. It’s just routine. Sometimes for some people it’s fun, or at least tolerable. For others, it is unbearable. But this tale does not settle old scores or vent bitterness. It will have you laughing and crying. It is simply the short and moving story of how Richard began the rest of his life.

Théologien et professeur émérite à la Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions de l’Université de Montréal, Richard Bergeron réfléchit sur les façons de redécouvrir une spiritualité authentique dans une société séculière. Il a publié plus d’une vingtaine d’ouvrages dont les derniers, «Renaître à la spiritualité» et «Et pourquoi pas Jésus?», cherchent à repenser la spiritualité chrétienne en prenant en compte les exigences de la sécularité et du pluralisme religieux.

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Originally from Ireland, Peter McCambridge holds a BA in modern languages from Cambridge University, England, and has lived in Quebec City since 2003. He runs Québec Reads and QC Fiction. His translations have been World Literature Today Notable Translations, longlisted for Canada Reads, and finalists for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Translation.

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"A childhood of suffering: Bergeron’s autobiography is a gripping page-turner." Henry Aubin, The Montreal Gazette