The Island of Books
ABOUT
THE BOOK
A rich portrait of the beauty of words – painted by a 15th-century illiterate scribe.
A 15th-century portrait painter, grieving the sudden death of his lover, takes refuge at the monastery at Mont Saint-Michel, an island off the coast of France. He haunts the halls until a monk assigns him the task of copying a manuscript – though he is illiterate. His work slowly heals him and continues the tradition that had, centuries earlier, grown the monastery’s library into a beautiful city of books, all under the shadow of the invention of the printing press.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Rhonda
Mullins
Rhonda Mullins has translated many books from French into English, including Grégoire Courtois’s The Laws of the Skies, Dominique Fortier’s Paper Houses, and Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette’s Suzanne. She is a seven-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation, winning the award for her translation of Jocelyne Saucier’s Twenty-One Cardinals. Novels she has translated have been contenders for CBC Canada Reads, and Suzanne was a finalist for the 2018 Best Translated Book Award. Mullins was the inaugural literary translator in residence at Concordia University in 2018. She is a mentor to emerging translators in the Banff International Literary Translation Program.
Rhonda Mullins has translated many books from French into English, including Grégoire Courtois’s The Laws of the Skies, Dominique Fortier’s Paper Houses, and Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette’s Suzanne. She is a seven-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation, winning the award for her translation of Jocelyne Saucier’s Twenty-One Cardinals. Novels she has translated have been contenders for CBC Canada Reads, and Suzanne was a finalist for the 2018 Best Translated Book Award. Mullins was the inaugural literary translator in residence at Concordia University in 2018. She is a mentor to emerging translators in the Banff International Literary Translation Program.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Dominique Fortier offers here a very delicate and personal book, trying to catch the spirit of such a magnificent place as the Mont St-Michel. The novel is a tribute to books and freedom.