Nikolski
Page 19
I smile, shrug my shoulders and, after taping the map of the Caribbean into place, return the Three-Headed Book to the clearance box.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author: I would like to express my appreciation to Brigitte Malenfant and Francine Royer for acquainting me at the right time with the residency programme of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), to Viviane Paradis and Josée Dubeau, who showed no pity in reviewing my grant applications, and to the team at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia, who made it possible for me to enjoy excellent working conditions.
A number of readers were patient enough to tackle this book in one or another of its many draft versions: Martin Beaulieu, Héloïse Duhaime, Sébastien Harvey, Saleema Hutchinson, Richard Levesque, Monik Richard, Antoine Tanguay, Hugo Tremblay, Bernard and Marie Wright-Laflamme, Viviane Paradis and Viriginie Rompré. Their comments allowed me to avoid numerous stumbling blocks.
I am grateful to Manuel Pimentel and Rossio Motta for making me aware of the jututo, to Joëlle Reid, for reminding me of her ancestor, and to Esther Cayouette, for checking certain parts of this story against reality.
For the English-language edition, I would like to thank Lazer Lederhendler and my editor at Knopf Canada, Pamela Murray.
Lastly, I must especially thank my family, my friends and my girlfriend for their support and wonderful patience during my writing marathons.
The translator acknowledges the assistance of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre (BILTC) at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada. He would also like to thank the Collège international des traducteurs littéraires (CITL) in Arles (France), where this translation got underway, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts for providing a travel grant.
NICOLAS DICKNER won two literary awards for his first published work, the short story collection L’encyclopédie du petit cercle. Born in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, he travelled extensively in Europe and Latin America before settling in Montreal.
LAZER LEDERHENDLER’S translation of The Immaculate Conception by Gaétan Soucy, was shortlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize and he is a four-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, most recently for his translation of Nikolski. He lives in Montreal.
VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2009
Copyright © 2005 Éditions Alto
English Translation Copyright © 2008 Lazer Lederhendler
Published by arrangement with Éditions Alto, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2009. Originally published in English in hardcover in Canada by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2008. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House of Canada Limited.
www.randomhouse.ca
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Dickner, Nicolas, 1972–
[Nikolski. English]
Nikolski / Nicolas Dickner; translated by Lazer Lederhendler.
Translation of: Nikolski.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37580-3
I. Lederhendler, Lazer, 1950– II. Title.
PS8557.1325N5313 2009 C843′.6 C2008-903689-1
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