Praise
What a beautiful story! And what a fervor . . . This first novel is a beautiful bouquet of emotions, sometimes serious and sometimes cheerful, composed with constant care.
— Réginald Martel, La Presse
Put this book on your rereading or reading list, along with Flaubert’s Sentimental Education.
— Pierre Yergeau
Sylvain Trudel reinvents language. A series of true characters thunder within him that vibrate with the whole range of emotions possible.
— Mélanie Vincelette
A story that comes straight from [Sylvain Trudel’s] heart of a child, without the filter of reason, that results in a work that is frenzied, vibrant, and charming. His writing has been compared to that of Réjean Ducharme, Emile Ajar, sometimes to Marc Favreau’s clown character Sol, and to Jacques Poulin. For me, it is the paintings of Chagall, oddly, that come to mind.
— La Presse
A touching story, poetic at times, that, in drawing on the naivety of children, allows us to refresh our perception of reality and to use this innocence as an anti-rust to unseal our eyes of the force of habit.
— Guy Cloutier, Le Soleil
This tale is told in what may at first seem like a foreign language, probably because it is—one as foreign as anything utterly original, unconstrained by rules or logic. Nonetheless, if you allow it to pour over you, or into you, it soon becomes as lucid as if it were actually your native tongue, the one you understood (and may have been doomed to forget) before you were even born.
— Doon Arbus
Sylvain Trudel has peerless insight into a child's speech, imagination, and supple sense of wonder. With The Harmattan Winds, he has blessed us with the gift of childhood.
— Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books
The Harmattan Winds is a beguiling fairy tale of a book, indebted as much to Bellow’s Henderson as it is to the immortal Peter Pan, a slender novel of the great adventure that is growing up.
— Rumaan Alam
The Harmattan Winds was a wonderful surprise. It's a lovely book and also a little fierce. Full of provocative ideas and adventures, and that one-of-a-kind voice of Hugues is a constant delight. So vivid, so quirky, so oddly believable. A very endearing book.
— Robert Plunket
An unusual coming-of-age tale imbued with undercurrents of magic, mystery, and tragedy . . . In the powerful novel The Harmattan Winds, young men struggle against their circumstances, seeking connections with and acceptance from others.
— Ho Lin, Foreword, starred review
Canadian author Trudel’s debut novel, skillfully translated by Winkler . . adeptly interweaves intriguing African fables, provocative sociopolitical commentary, poetry, and armchair philosophy. This bildungsroman, underscored by a myriad of emotions, offers a portrait of two boys’ desperate longing to feel at home in the world and their search for identity and a place where they can be free of adult intervention and societal pressures.
— Lillian Dabney, Booklist
With the spirit of a fairy tale, yet at the same time grounded in small town Quebec (or Canada generally) in an age before video games, computers or many available television channels, this novella surges with energy . . . The magic of this coming of age tale rests firmly on the imagination, determination, and entirely idiosyncratic worldview of Hugues and Habéké . . . Fast-paced and original.
Lyrical and enigmatic . . . Trudel sustains a dreamy mood and brings his characters to vivid life. [The Harmattan Winds] is a singular tale of trauma diverted into obsessive fantasy.