And it feels awesome (literally – the matte finish is silky). It’s odd to hold your own book and to not have read it. But the French version of Waiting for the Man will be published next month (it launches this week) and I’m kind of thrilled by it. Mostly because as a Quebecois the idea of the translation, and that it was translated locally (as opposed to France) was, and is, important. Les Editions Marchand De Feuilles is a lovely, smart, fiercely independent local publisher. And the translation, by Daniel Grenier (who is a crazy good writer to begin with), is amazing, at least the parts I’ve read. So this book is mine and it’s not mine. The team behind a translation is different, wider, perhaps more anonymous. But the result, one hopes, is the same: more readers, new readers, another conversation, a new dialogue.
