The Second Substance

De: Anne Lardeux, Pablo Strauss

Narrado por: Trinity Wilcox

Squatters at a rural gas station try to find freedom and build something new on the ashes of our petrocivilization in this sensual novel.

A community of outsiders takes over an abandoned gas station. They spend their days ripping up asphalt, drinking beer and eating hot dogs, and wandering through woods and towns in search of new ways of living. People come and go: a charismatic landscaper, Italian anarchists, a policewoman, travelers. A teenager drifts into homelessness. And The Girl With No Name keeps a journal of her attempts to meet new people and sleep with them, sex that is “not a sideline” but the motivating force in a story she is struggling to understand.

Neighbors grow hostile. An investigation threatens the community. Tension builds between the surface violence of “normal life” and the attempt of these outsiders to experience freedom and build something new on the ashes of our oil-addicted society.

With a character borrowed from Agnès Varda’s Vagabond and inspiration taken from Anne Boyer’s writings, Anne Lardeux’s highly original debut assembles elements of poetry, film, and visual arts into an exuberant choral novel, an ode to the daughters of fire and to the poetry of the body. Often funny, sometimes raunchy, consistently surprising, never flinching, The Second Substance heralds an important new voice in Quebec literature.

©2022 Anne Lardeux, Pablo Strauss (P)2022 Coach House Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

“After reading [The Second Substance], you may forget how to read from left to right, or walk by putting one foot in front of the other … A mix of black humour, the absurd, and little stories in a highly inventive style …” — Le Matricule des Anges (France)

“A strongly erotic first novel swept along by free, sensual writing, an ode to the daughters of fire and the poetry of the body.” — Les libraires (Quebec)

“Walk in the woods, hunt, chop wood, fuck, sleep — and the cycle repeats… a return to animal instincts and the senses […] A compelling first novel with a surprising mastery of language and style.” — Bruno Cloutier (Quebec)