Happiness Has a Slippery Tail

<p>This novel paints the portrait of a Lebanese family that has settled in Montreal. The central figure is Dounia a 75-year-old mother and grandmother. Hers is a story of loss--she first leaves her own village to live in her husband's hometown and then is wrenched from her homeland not once but twice to live in a strange land whose language and customs are foreign to her.</p><p></p><p>Dounia can neither read nor write and she speaks only Arabic. Illiterate yet perceptive nourished by Lebanese proverbs and pearls of wisdom she has a unique and captivating voice. She struggles yes but manages to achieve fulfilment in her new world: My home is where my grandchildren are clinging to my neck calling me <em>Sitto</em> Dounia [...] in my language. I want to die where my children and my grandchildren live.</p><p></p><p>Abla Farhoud was an actor and playwright before becoming a novelist in 1998 with the publication of this novel the French title of which was <em>Le bonheur a la queue glissante</em> awarded the France-Québec - Philippe Rossillon Prize. Other novels followed including <em>Le Sourire de la petite Juive</em> (published in English as <em>Hutchison Street</em>) <em>Le dernier des Snoreux</em> and the posthumous book <em>Havre-Saint-Pierre</em>. Abla Farhoud passed away in 2021.</p>