Obeying an affinity for the sea, Cybil Noland, a writer, agrees to collaborate with two women, an oceanographer and a photographer, on a book recording the marvels of an undersea world that may not survive an age obsessed with technology and instant visual stimulation. They fly together to Buenos Aires and set sail aboard a research ship, where Cybil and the photographer are initiated to diving through virtual reality, an exhilarating experience for the one, frightening for the other. As the days pass, the members of the expedition reveal telling traits, and Cybil wonders how a person becomes a source of inspiration for a fictional character. After the voyage, which comes to an alarming end, Cybil sets to work writing the text for the book, haunted by questions and by the characters in a novel she has in progress.
Moving gracefully between seascape, and places as diverse as Rimouski, Buenos Aires, London, and Montréal, Brossard creates a world of uncertainties and paradoxes. The novel is vivid in its beauty as it shape-changes, as it questions the nature of reality and fiction, as the writer and the writer's creations, the characters, interact in an intricate dance. With the poet's ear and eye that have won her an international following, Brossard juxtaposes the commonplace with the startling, and human leaps of illogic with eternal truths. Is reality what we think it is? How do we know what to think about anything?
Baroque at Dawn, written in sensuous, luminous prose, masterfully translated by Patricia Claxton, confirms Brossard's reputation as one of today's most intelligent, daring, and original writers.
Poet, novelist, and essayist, Nicole Brossard, including A Book, French Kiss, The Aerial Letter, and Mauve Desert, her previous novel. Her innovative work on language has influenced a whole generation on the questions of post-modernist and feminist writing. She is the winner of numerous awards, including two Governor General's Awards, the Harbourfront Festival Prize, and le Prix Athanse-David. She lives in Montréal