Description

1 Oct. 2026. PRE-ORDER NOW

Stéphanie, a Montréal writer, is recruited by a left-wing provincial party to run in their upcoming elections. After a surprise victory she is, despite her inexperience, appointed Québec’s Minister of Culture. As she navigates her new role, a wave of #MeToo denunciations erupts in the literary world. Stéphanie begins to make connections between her own experiences and those of the survivors daring to speak out. Fragile Like a Bomb is a powerful, illuminating novel that reveals how men’s violence against women is both intimate and institutional, shaping everything from personal memory to public culture.

Catherine Fred Lavarenne has worked as a college instructor, a political attaché for the City of Montréal, and a project manager for rights advocacy at the Québec LGBT Council. Her first novel, Quelques lieux de Constance, was published by Héliotrope in 2018. Fragile Like a Bomb is her second novel. She lives in Montreal.

Natalia Hero is a Montreal-based writer and literary translator. Her debut novella, Hum, was published in 2018 by Metatron Press. Her translations include Valid: Dystopian Autofiction by Chris Bergeron, Thirty by Marie Darsigny, In the End They Told Them All to Get Lost by Laurence Leduc-Primeau, and God’s Zoo by Pablo Urbanyi. Hero holds a B.A. in English and Spanish literature from Concordia University and an M.A. in literary translation from the University of Ottawa

Reviews and Praise

“Lavarenne’s premise is uncannily accurate. The author criticizes the various injustices that are a daily reality for so many. Whether it’s the unequal treatment of women in politics or the hypocrisy of the parliamentary system, the former political attaché laments that these situations are still so prevalent. Fragile Like a Bomb isn’t just a political story. It’s a story about women and the constant obstacles they must overcome to keep from spending all their time treading water.”
—Patrice Sirois, Page par page