Happiness Has a Slippery Tail

Name: Happiness Has a Slippery Tail
Brand: Les Presses de l'UniversitÈ d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press
SKU: 9780776642604
Price: 10.99 EUR
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 978-0-776-64260-4

de Abla Farhoud (auteur), Judith Weisz Woodsworth (traduction)

Maison d'édition : Les Presses de l'UniversitÈ d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press

octobre 2025

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Résumé

This novel paints the portrait of a Lebanese family that has settled in Montreal. The central figure is Dounia, a 75-year-old mother and grandmother. Hers is a story of loss—she first leaves her own village to live in her husband’s hometown, and then is wrenched from her homeland, not once but twice, to live in a strange land whose language and customs are foreign to her.

Dounia can neither read nor write, and she speaks only Arabic. Illiterate yet perceptive, nourished by Lebanese proverbs and pearls of wisdom, she has a unique and captivating voice. She struggles, yes, but manages to achieve fulfilment in her new world: “My home is where my grandchildren are, clinging to my neck, calling me Sitto Dounia […] in my language. I want to die where my children and my grandchildren live.”

Abla Farhoud was an actor and playwright before becoming a novelist in 1998 with the publication of this novel, the French title of which was Le bonheur a la queue glissante, awarded the France-Québec – Philippe Rossillon Prize. Other novels followed, including Le Sourire de la petite Juive (published in English as Hutchison Street), Le dernier des Snoreux, and the posthumous book Havre-Saint-Pierre. Abla Farhoud passed away in 2021.

Auteur

Abla Farhoud (auteur)

Née au Liban en 1945, Abla Farhoud s'est installée à Montréal après des études de théâtre à l'Université de Vincennes. Elle a été comédienne et dramaturge, avant de se consacrer entièrement au roman à partir de la fin des années 1990. Son œuvre intime, pénétrée des thèmes de l'appartenance et de la mémoire, a remporté de nombreuses distinctions, dont le prix France-Québec et le Prix du roman francophone. Elles'est éteinte en décembre 2021.
Judith Weisz Woodsworth (Traduit par)

Judith Weisz Woodsworth is Professor of Translation Studies in the Département d’études françaises at Concordia University. She has published widely on the history and theory of translation and has translated novels by Quebec authors Pierre Nepveu and Abla Farhoud.