Desire As Natural Disaster

Eleven brilliant short tales, told with a sharp, sometimes surreal, sometimes mordant wit, deftly describe the paranoia and passions of urban life. Montrealer Claire Dé, in the forefront of the Quebec writers, is an irreverent woman, wise beyond years, full of laughter, not despair, at the dark side of life. The extraordinary translation of her book, which won the Prix Stendhal in 1989 in Paris, is by Lazer Lederhendler, a fine writer in his own right. Since then, she has completed another short story collection and two novels. Her most recent work is titled Bonheur, oiseau rare (Happiness, Scarce Bird), and composed entirely of haiku.

Claire Dé was born in Montreal during the fifties, just three minutes before the writer Anne Dandurand, incidentally her identical twin sister. In fact, it was the very last time that she ever made haste. She has first started by writing numerous one-act plays and radio dramas, and now devotes herself to fiction. Desire As Natural Disaster is her fourth book.