By Philippe Mineau In Books and Featured Books Tagged In family, fiction, Guilt Trippers, music, Novel, parenthood, and Quebec.

THE GUILT TRIPPERS

Published Date: April 30, 2026

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APRIL 2026.

One of CBC’s top fiction titles for Spring 2026!

Moe Tremblay is struggling with domesticity. New to Montréal, his wife climbs the corporate law ladder while he stays home with the kids. It sounded like a good idea. Then Dean shows up. Enticing him with tales of grime and glory, he convinces Moe to join his band, Guilt Trip.

This opens the door to a world of aging musician journeymen and a local music scene that is soiled and sexy, alluring and dangerous. The Guilt Trippers is a darkly funny and moving take on modern parenthood, the Montréal music scene, and some of the musicians who call it home.

Philippe Mineau, a life partner and father to two young boys, has worked in a lab coat firing lasers at proteins in Denmark, played accordion for jazz manouche and Forró bands, worked as an illegal migrant fruit picker and farm labourer, and written policy on psychedelic drugs for the federal government.

He currently runs a music studio in Montreal’s Little Italy, plays in the pop rock band Radio Patente, and tries to spend as much of his summers as possible on the water, canoe paddle in hand. The Guilt Trippers is his first novel. He lives in Montreal.

 

Reviews & Praise

“The Guilt Trippers is at its best in its vivid descriptions of the city’s neighbourhoods, as well as the anxieties and uncertainties of the Montreal musician lifestyle. The grit, camaraderie, and seedy lack of glamour all ring true, as does the frustrating nature of being in a band with self-centred trainwreck types. […] Mineau writes with an admirable flow – always harder than it seems – and should be commended for taking a crack at fertile material that merits further exploration. The Guilt Trippers is engaging.” – Alexander Hackett, Montreal Review of Books
“The Guilt Trippers takes a raw, compelling look at the challenges, pitfalls and rewards of trying to merge a musician’s life and parenthood. Unflinchingly accurate in its depictions of the demands of early child rearing, the often indelicate negotiations of band politics, the temptations of escape through drugs and sex and the strain all this can put on relationships, The Guilt Trippers moves forward like a train that feels like it might go off the rails at any moment. A thoroughly engaging debut by Philippe Mineau.”
–  Glenn Milchem, drummer for Blue Rodeo and father of four.
“When the burdens and joys of fatherhood clash with the grit and euphoria of being a committed musician, The Guilt Trippers unfolds with dazzling finesse into an exploration of family, kinship, and oh yes, sex, drugs and rock and roll. A love letter to parenthood, the magic of Montréal nights, and musicians jamming in underground studios and bars everywhere.”
–  Cora Siré, author of Fear the Mirror

“A rock ‘n roll novel with a tender heart; Philippe Mineau’s punchy prose traverses a tightrope that balances past and present, fatherhood and friendship, marriage and pure debauchery. The novel taps into the ageless spirit of Montreal, but one that threatens to be just a little bit wiser with the passage of time.”
–  Dean Garlick, author of Chloes and The Fish

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