The Italian Cultural Institute and Baraka Books are pleased to invite you to the launch of BUT WE BUILT ROADS FOR THEM The Lies, Racism and Amnesia that Bury Italy’s Colonial Past by FRANCESCO FILIPPI translation of: Noi Però Gli Abbiamo Fatto Le Strade Le colonie italiane tra bugie, razzismi e amnesie
Translated by Domenic Cusmano A discussion about Italy’s colonial history.
Tuesday, March 19, 6:30 p.m.
Istituto Italiano di Cultura 1200, av. Dr. Penfield, Montréal R.S.V.P.
Author Francesco Filippi will be present at the Institute and will be speaking to the public in Italian with consecutive interpretation in French. The discussion will be moderated by Dario Brancato, Professor of Italian Language, Literature and Culture and Concordia. Translator Domenic Cusmano and Publisher Robin Philpot will also take part.
____________________
L’Institut Culturel Italien et Baraka Books ont le plaisir de vous inviter au lancement du livre BUT WE BUILT ROADS FOR THEM The Lies, Racism and Amnesia that Bury Italy’s Colonial Past de FRANCESCO FILIPPI
traduction de: Noi Però Gli Abbiamo Fatto Le Strade Le colonie italiane tra bugie, razzismi e amnesie
Traduit par Domenic Cusmano
Une discussion sur le passé colonial italien.
L’auteur, Francesco Filippi, sera présent à l’Institut pour une rencontre avec le public en langue italienne, avec traduction consécutive en français. L’entretien sera animé par Dario Brancato, professeur de langue, littérature et culture italiennes à l’Université Concordia, avec le traducteur du livre, Domenic Cusmano et de l’éditeur Robin Philpot.
Mardi, le 19 mars, 18h30
Istituto Italiano di Cultura 1200, av. Dr. Penfield, Montréal
(Montreal, 26 February 2024.) Robin Philpot, publisher of Baraka Books, is very pleased to announce the appointment of Melissa Bull to the position of Fiction Editor of QC Fiction, an imprint of Baraka Books. Melissa will be taking over from Peter McCambridge, who founded QC Fiction in 2015 and headed it until January 2024.
In this position, Melissa’s responsibilities will include curating the publishing of fiction at QC Fiction from choice of books, through editing, proofreading, production, and post-publishing follow-up.
Melissa Bull has just finished translating the award-winning novel Morel (Cheval d’août, 2021) by Maxime Raymond Bock, to be published by QC Fiction in June 2024.
Melissa joins the Baraka team that includes Blossom Thom, Fiction Editor of Baraka Books, Josée Lalancette, Production Manager, and Hélène Couture, Accountant, and Robin Philpot, Publisher.
Baraka Books would like to thank Peter McCambridge for creating QC Fiction and for curating it for seven years and making it into the award-winning imprint it is. We wish him all the best in is future endeavours.
______
Melissa Bull is a Montreal writer, poet, editor, and translator. Author of a collection of fiction, The Knockoff Eclipse, a collection of poetry, Rue, she has also translated Marie-Sissi Labrèche’s novel, Borderline, Pascale Rafie’s play, The Baklawa Recipe, and Nelly Arcan’s collection, Burqa of Skin. She was the editor and translator of Maisonneuve magazine’s “Writing from Quebec” column for a decade, and her fiction, essays, and interviews have been widely published. Her most recent translation is Morel by Maxime Raymond Bock. Melissa lives in Montreal.
QC Fiction, an imprint of Baraka Books founded by Peter McCambridge in 2015, brings the very best of a new generation of Quebec storytellers in flawless English translation.
Baraka Books, a Quebec-based English-language book publisher, is celebrating its 15th anniversary. Specializing in creative and political non-fiction, history, fiction and historical fiction, and, we believe that books are a haven of freedom and remain the foremost vector for change. Baraka can mean blessing, wisdom, luck, and more. Inspired by this multilingual and cross-cultural word, Baraka Books is committed to providing English-speaking readers in Canada and worldwide with ideas, points of view, and creative works that might otherwise be overlooked because of cultural or linguistic barriers.
– 30 –
Source : Robin Philpot 514-808-8504
Melissa Bull nommée directrice littéraire de QC Fiction
(Montréal, le 26 février 2024.) Robin Philpot, éditeur de Livres Baraka Inc., a le plaisir d’annoncer la nomination de Melissa Bull au poste de directrice littéraire de QC Fiction, une collection de Baraka Books. Melissa prend ainsi le relais de Peter McCambridge, qui a fondé la collection en 2015 et l’a dirigée depuis.
À ce titre, parmi ses responsabilités figurent le choix des œuvres à publier, le travail d’édition, de correction, et le suivi de la production jusqu’à la publication et la promotion.
Melissa Bull vient de terminer la traduction de Morel (Cheval d’août, 2021) de Maxime Raymond Bock, un roman qui a mérité de nombreux prix et distinctions. Morelparaîtra chez QC Fiction en juin 2024.
Melissa se joint à l’équipe de Baraka, qui comprend notamment Robin Philpot, éditeur, Blossom Thom, éditrice de fiction, Josée Lalancette, directrice de production, Hélène Couture, comptable, et.
Livres Baraka tient à remercier chaleureusement Peter McCambridge d’avoir créé la collection QC Fiction et de l’avoir dirigée durant ces sept années où elle a gagné en reconnaissance grâce aux nombreux prix et distinctions que ses livres ont reçues. Nous lui souhaitons bonne chance dans ses nouveaux projets.
_______
Melissa Bull est une écrivaine, poète, éditrice et traductrice montréalaise. Auteure d’un recueil de fictions, The Knockoff Eclipse (Éclipse électrique) et d’un recueil de poésie, Rue, elle a également traduit le roman Borderline de Marie-Sissi Labrèche, la pièce de théâtre La recette de baklawas de Pascale Rafie, ainsi que le recueil Burqa de chair de Nelly Arcan. Elle a été rédactrice et traductrice de la rubrique « Writing from Quebec » du magazine Maisonneuve pendant dix ans, et ses fictions, essais et entrevues ont été diffusés dans de nombreuses publications. Sa plus récente traduction est le roman Morel de Maxime Raymond Bock. Melissa vit à Montréal.
QC Fiction, une collection de Livres Baraka fondée en 2015 par Peter McCambridge, publie les meilleures œuvres d’une nouvelle génération d’écrivaines et d’écrivains du Québec dans des traductions impeccables.
Les livres Baraka, une maison d’édition québécoise qui publie des livres en anglais, célèbre cette année son 15e anniversaire. Publiant des essais politiques et littéraires, des fictions historiques et contemporaines, nous croyons que le livre est un havre de liberté et demeure le plus important vecteur du changement. Baraka signifie, selon la langue, la bénédiction, la sagesse ou la chance. Inspirés par ce mot qui traverse langues et cultures, nous nous engageons à offrir aux lecteurs et aux lectrices de langue anglaise au Canada et partout des idées, des points de vue et des œuvres de création qui, autrement, pourraient passer inaperçues en raison de barrières linguistiques et culturelles.
– 30 –
Source : Robin Philpot 514-808-8504
Baraka Books acknowledges the support of the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec (SODEC), the Government of Quebec Tax Credits program, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund.
Livres Baraka remercie pour leur soutien la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec (SODEC), le Gouvernement du Québec pour le programme de crédits d’impôt et le Gouvernement du Canada par le biais du Fonds du livre du Canada.
Pre-order. Crows Pub Date, June 1. Free shipping in North America
Connected via the fictional town of St Anne’s, a community along Nova Scotia’s western shore, each story takes its title from the children’s rhyme Counting Crows.
One for sorrow, two for joy,
three for a message, four for a boy,
five for silver, six for gold,
seven for a secret never to be told.
Within each tale an individual (often from the same family, always from the same town) will note the number of crows in their midst and recall the poem as it relates to the prophecy and the story at hand. Between the last century and the current one, the characters (for the most part, women) walk a shifting landscape carved out by war, poverty, and patriarchal expectations. Beneath the gaze of a small town and these intelligent birds whose memories are unforgiving, we are as close as a heartbeat to the souls upon these pages.
Born in Nova Scotia, Mary Verna Feehan has lived, worked and studied throughout Canada, the United States and Ireland. Her writing, fed by place and the souls inhabiting them, speaks from the blue and pink collar world she hails from and navigates. Her work has appeared in North American and European journals. She lives with her family on Cape Breton Island. In the Shadow of Crows is her first collection of short stories.
Praise
“Poetic in its telling—M.V. Feehan’s stories weave through time with recurring characters in the varied moments of a life.These people who live in or are connected to the town of St. Anne’s experience hope and disappointment, small dreams and painful realities. Throughout the narrations a Greek chorus of crows foretell the fates that await the men and women whose lives are forever changing…. From a high school crush to the tragedy of a miscarriage to family ostracization, Feehan’s characters endure the burden of being alive, but they also live lives shot through with the joy of friendship, unexpected bureaucratic kindness and acts of tenderness.” Frank Macdonald, (A Forest for Callum and Smeltdog Man)
“A poignant view of lives passing with crows from a children’s rhyme poised at the margins of each story. Feehan has a deep and sensitive understanding of human nature and a relentless focus on each individual working his and her way through the maze.” Phyllis Barber, author of The Desert Between Us and The Desert Above
“Feehan successfully evokes nostalgia but more profoundly finds poignancy in each symbolic line, which is mirrored in the precision of her writing. The result is a mosaic that is at once dreamlike and realist. The struggles and moments of joy feel epic despite her remarkable concision.” Chris Benjamin, author of Boy with a Problem
Cover art: ALEX COLVILLE, Seven Crows 1980
Acrylic on hardboard, Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Copyright A.C. Fine Art. Reproduced with permission
Pre-order now. Dear Haider Pub date, June 1. Free shipping in North America.
Liz, born in China and raised in Montreal, is about to land in Germany for a summer physics internship at the end of her freshman year. Eager for a new beginning, she hopes to break free of her unrealized childhood dream of becoming a pianist, a dead-end romantic relationship, and the tug of war between her Chinese and Canadian identities.
In Germany, she meets fellow intern Haider, an Indian Muslim from Toronto, and they fall in love against expectations. But summer doesn’t last forever. Once they return to Canada, culture clashes and family disapproval threaten to pull them apart. As her sense of self is pushed dangerously close to a tipping point, Liz must summon the courage to survive the chaos that her life has become.
Lili Zeng holds a PhD in biophysics from McGill University. She has several peer-reviewed papers under her name and has given a dozen scientific and public outreach talks. Also a classically trained pianist, she has won numerous music competitions and soloed with prestigious chamber and symphony orchestras. She was born in Guangzhou, China, and moved to Montreal, Canada, with her parents as a child. Dear Haider is Lili’s first novel.
Pre-order The Thickness of Ice now; available April 2024
The Thickness of Ice is a tender and tragic tale set in the remote subarctic town of Churchill, Manitoba, on Hudson Bay. The barren icy landscape pervades the characters’ lives and relationships. As the novel opens Wade confesses that he was responsible for the death of his best friend Jack three years after meeting him. They had been arguing about Tess, a Dene woman they were both in love with. Jack’s body was never found, and Wade never admitted to the act. It was assumed that Jack had left abruptly. However, many years later, Wade meets Esther who moves to Churchill to live with him. She hears the story of Jack’s disappearance. To bring some closure to Wade, she determines to resolve what happened to Jack. For Wade, his carefully constructed life is now threatened.
Gerard Beirne holds Canadian and Irish citizenship. He has published three novels, three books of poetry, and a collection of short stories. His short story collection In a Time of Drought and Hunger was shortlisted for The Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Gerard has lived in Northern Manitoba and also taught English at the University of New Brunswick. He now teaches Creative Writing and Literature at ATU Sligo, Ireland.
Reviews and Praise
“Set in the Canadian tundra, Gerard Beirne’s exquisite novel The Thickness of Ice is more than a love story; it’s a story of culpability and redemption, propelled by a twenty-five-year-old mystery. . . . Breathtaking and immersive, The Thickness of Ice is a snowbound, heartwarming mystery novel marked by love and beauty, friendship and betrayal, and the darkness of the human heart.” STARRED REVIEW, Elaine Chiew, Foreword Reviews (May / June 2024)
“A deft and moving tale of love and loss on life’s cold margins, in which character is fate, and landscape is character.” Ed O’Loughlin, Giller Finalist & Man Booker Prize nominee
“This is a beautifully cadenced novel of loneliness and desire. The evocation of the physical world is wonderful, the synthesis of the weather of the heart and the elemental landscape is stunning. Prose of grace and clarity is ballasted with real narrative drive as past ghosts emerge. Powerful, evocative, haunting, The Thickness of Ice is an extraordinary novel.” Eoin McNamee, screenwriter, Longlisted for Man Booker Prize for Blue Tango, author of 19 novels
“Clever writing and pacing make this story not only believable but serve to draw the reader in as all the characters are likeable in their way, but all have their flaws, cracks in their characters… One can tell when good writing is unfolding right before their eyes.” STARRED REVIEW, James Fisher, The Miramichi Reader
“A masterpiece in cadence, rhythm, metaphor, symbolism. Beirne’s characters are rich in detail even as we get so few details, and he has created a landscape so vivid in its emptiness and coldness, and at the same time so mythical, that I was awestruck page after page. Chapter 18 is an opera.” Leila Marshy, Author of Philistine
About Gerard Beirne’s other work
“Beirne’s descriptive writing is superb. He evokes the atmosphere of the town brilliantly, along with the surrounding landscape…” Books Ireland
“By far the most memorable novel of the year for me was Gerard Beirne’s wonderful The Eskimo in the Net…. Just like the central character, Jim Gallagher, the reader is drawn into the depths of both a mystery and a personal voyage of discovery…. Wonderful clear prose and sensitive observation in a tough environment make this an outstanding debut work, scandalously ignored by this year’s Man Booker judges.” Graham Ball ― Daily Express
Canada’s Long Fight against Democracy is a sweeping overview of Canadian-backed coups since 1950. It documents Canada’s contribution to the ouster of over 20 elected governments from Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran to Patrice Lumumba in Congo, Salvador Allende in Chile and Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti.
As part of subverting democracy, Ottawa has cut off aid and imposed illegal sanctions in the hopes of turning the population against the targeted government. Canada has also financed opposition civil society groups and allowed protesters to use its embassy as a staging point to topple a president. They’ve even organized a secret international gathering to discuss overthrowing a popular leader, decided a marginal opposition politician was the legitimate president, and dispatched the Canadian military to subvert democracy.
While government officials and the media regularly frame conflicts with geopolitical competitors as motivated by a belief in democracy, the authors debunk the notion that decision-makers in Ottawa are driven by promoting democracy abroad.
Washington’s role in subverting elected governments has been detailed in countless studies by scholars and observers from around the world. The literature on Canada’s role in anti-democratic meddling is comparatively limited. In fact, thisis the first book to focus on Canada’s role in subverting democracy around the globe.
With poems by Rob Rolfe
Yves Engler is a political activist and author of twelve books. He has been dubbed as “one of the most important voices on the Canadian Left.” The Globe and Mail has situated him in the mould of I.F. Stone, while Quill & Quire says Engler is “part of that rare but growing group of social critics unafraid to confront Canada’s self-satisfied myths.” Yves Engler lives in Montreal.
Owen Schalk is a writer from Manitoba. He is the author of Canada in Afghanistan: A Story of Military, Diplomatic, Political, and Media Failure, 2003-2023 (Lorimer Books, 2023). His articles have been published by Alborada, Monthly Review, and Protean Magazine, and he contributes a weekly column to Canadian Dimension magazine. He also writes fiction, and you can read his short stories in Quagmire Literary Magazine, Sobotka Literary Magazine, Vast Chasm Magazine, and more.
Rob Rolfe is the author of seven books of poetry and three poetry chapbooks. His poetry has appeared in many Canadian journals, and in poetry anthologies in Canada and the United States. Rob was a librarian and union leader in Toronto and has served as Owen Sound Poets Laureate with singer-songwriter Larry Jensen.
“While Parliament argues hysterically over “foreign interference” in Canada, the reality is that Canada has a long and bloody record of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries around the world. These countries include Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, etc. Engler’s new book gives an account of 20 coups in which (‘democratic-values’) Canada played a criminal role.” THE TAYLOR REPORT
In the fiery political debates in and about Italy, silence reigns about the country’s colonial legacy. By reducing European colonial history to Britain and France, Italy has effectively concealed an enduring phenomenon in its history that lasted close to 80 years (1882 to 1960). It also blots out the history of the countries it colonized in Northeastern Africa.
Italian colonial history began in 1882 with the acquisition of Assab Bay and came to a formal end only on July 1, 1960 when the Italian flag was lowered in Mogadishu, Somalia. It began well before Mussolini’s rise to power and lasted for many years thereafter. It involved both the Kingdom of Italy in the liberal period and the Republic of Italy after World War II.
Francesco Filippi challenges the myth of Italians being “nice people” or “good” colonialists who simply built roads for Africans. Despite extensive historiography, the collective awareness of the nations conquered and the violence inflicted on them remains superficial, be it in Italy or internationally. He retraces Italy’s colonial history, focusing on how propaganda, literature and popular culture have warped our understanding of the past and thereby hampered our ability to deal with the present.
As in his previous No. 1 Italian bestseller Mussolini Also Did A Lot of Good, Filippi pits historical facts against tenacious popular myths about Italy and Italy’s colonial history.
With a Foreword by Robin Philpot, publisher of Baraka Books.
Francesco Filippi is a historian of mentalities and an educator who has specialized in the relationship between memory and the present. He is co-founder of Deina, an association that organises trips of memory and training courses all over Italy. Filippi is the author of five books including the Italian bestseller Mussolini Also Did A Lot of Good (Baraka Books 2021). He lives in Trento, Italy.
Domenic Cusmano is a Montreal communications professional, photojournalist, and translator whose previous translations include books from Italian and French into English. Publisher and editor of Accenti Magazine, he holds degrees from the Université de Montréal and McGill University. His work as a photojournalist has taken him throughout Europe, Africa, and South America.
Reviews
“Francesco Filippi returns to confront the history of mentality and with one of the most tragic and least known themes of Italy’s recent past. And he does it with his usual style at the same time documented and ironic, relying on a large amount of research re-interpreted in the light of some brilliant personal insights. In this way the author retraces the short parable of Italian colonialism.” L’indicie dei libri del mese
“Filippi points out brilliantly that the roots of a false consciousness grow out of a widespread stereotype of the Italians as ‘good people.’ (…) his book warns us against ‘prejudice’ from believing we know when we don’t know…” Giovanni de Luna, La Stampa
“We are indebted to Mr. Filippi for his skilled passion in establishing a proper analysis for those who seek to counter the supporters of Mussolini’s tyrannical reign.” Truby Chiaviello, Primo Magazine
“Chapter by chapter, point by point, Filippi dislodges propaganda with fact, answers mirage with astringent sunlight, and dispels nostalgia with body-counts.” George Elliott Clarke
“an antidote to all the nonsense still circulating about fascism…. Filippi is almost surgical in the way he reestablishes the context.” La Repubblica Book of the Month
“In the existing climate, Francesco Filippi’s scalpel is of utmost importance” Le Monde
“Francesco Filippi’s book is very timely and relevant … a lesson on a past that simply doesn’t go away.” Corriere Della Sera
This work has been translated with the contribution of the Centre for Books and Reading of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Two young writers who grew up in the shadow of the huge chimneys of a copper refinery in Rouyn-Noranda speak out. They refuse to be lulled by the songs of gold that have silenced the people who built the city and enriched the foundry owners for decades. They subtly and poetically illustrate the love-hate relationship they maintain with the arsenic and “piles of slag and copper.” This passionate dialogue in French hit Quebec bookstores like a tornado and the English version will echo in company towns throughout North America.
Epigraph
“These letters, peppered with love and rage, are another step in a movement that began long before our time, led by women and men who raised their voices against all odds. To the women who work without pay to demand justice for our community, to the citizens who have spoken out over the years, to those who have paid the price for their commitment, to honest doctors, may this book be used above all as a pretext for giving you a voice again and all the recognition that you deserve.”
Jean-Lou David was born in Rouyn-Noranda in 1993. He is an author.
Gabrielle Izaguirré-Falardeau grew up in Rouyn-Noranda. She is a student, artist and militant.
Mary O’Connor is a Montreal translator who holds a degree from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
In the media
“This unusual and often poetic dialogue between two writers about their love-hate relationship with the mining town of Rouyn-Noranda created a stir in Quebec, and is now translated into English. A passionate look at the realities of communities shadowed by smokestacks and the rapacious extraction of natural resources.” Quill and Quire
“… the letters are poetic, almost violently emotional, romantic, and heartbreaking…” Pascal Chevrette, L’action nationale
“The authors’ intimate and heartfelt approach inspires a profound reflection on how big industry exploits the territory but also a declaration of love for a region, its magnetic landscapes, its creative silence and places that recall the solidarity of the people.” Le Devoir
Facebook