Marianne, a young Montrealer, has come to live in Tuscany to draw and write and examine her life. Here she meets Marco, a temptingly seductive man who still lives in his mother’s house in the village and who’s not prepared to commit himself to anything resembling a shared life. Though he breaks her heart, again and again, Marianne can only avoid him by returning to Canada.

This first novel by Pascale Quiviger is marked by its luminous language and its unstinting look at what makes Marianne, and Marco, and, indeed, an entire village and the world beyond it, tick.

Pascale Quiviger was born in Montreal. She holds both a Master’s degree in Philosophy and a degree in Fine Arts. She lives in Italy, where she paints, writes and teaches visual arts. She has exhibited in both Canada and Italy, and has published a collection of short stories, Ni sol ni ciel (2001). Her novel Le cercle parfait won the 2004 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction in the French Language; the English edition, A Perfect Circle, translated by Sheila Fischman, was a finalist for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

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• Short-listed, Scotiabank Giller Prize

“Quiviger’s prose flits across lofty queries and explores them with a lucid and gripping poetic style.”

The Globe and Mail

“Quiviger’s prose will seduce the romantic with its many charms, while satisfying the realist with its challenging portrayal of a modern relationship that attempts to bridge two cultures, two languages, and two independent personalities.”

Quill and Quire

“With The Perfect Circle, Quiviger gives us a wholly satisfying novel – one that stimulates the intellect while inflaming the senses.”

Montreal Gazette