ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
The situation of Ariel and Marie is based on the one of a British couple whose marriage was annulled in 2011 after the truth about their origins came to light. Their respective parents had never told them they were adopted. Hence, on the day they pronounced their wedding vows they were unaware of having a twin sibling. Their identity has never been revealed, and my characters, as well as their occupations, family circumstances, temperaments, and decisions are entirely the fruits of my imagination.
The Angie character was inspired by Anaiah Rucker, who, at the age of nine, saved her younger sister’s life by pushing her out of the way of a truck. She lost a leg in the accident. That she hails from Georgia is, as far as I know, the only feature she shares with little Angie and her sister.
Madeleine’s story draws on the life of Karen Keegan, one of the very rare natural “chimeras” identified by science. But while the sequence of events in the fictional narrative—kidney disease, compatibility tests, absence of genetic filiation, and then the discovery of two distinct DNAs in the same woman—coincides with that of the lived experience, Madeleine Sicotte and those close to her are in no way similar to Ms. Keegan and her family and intimates.
As for Joanna, she is modelled on someone I met during a trip to Asia several years ago. I have changed very little except for the traveller’s name, and her presence in my story should be seen as a humble tribute to that larger-than-life woman.
Aside from this one outright debt to reality, I have taken nothing from the other stories but their framework, to which I have added several layers of fiction, so that my characters should not be regarded as copies of actual persons. If any of them should by chance—something I have learned to be wary of—read this novel, I respectfully thank them for lending an impetus to my work through the extraordinary paths they have followed and their no doubt equally remarkable courage.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catherine Leroux was born in suburban Montreal in 1979. She studied philosophy at Université de Montréal, and worked at a wide variety of jobs in Quebec, Ontario, the United States, and Europe. She later became a journalist and was the Toronto correspondent for Radio-Canada. Her first novel, La marche en forêt, was nominated for the 2012 Quebec Booksellers’ Prize. The Party Wall, her second novel, was a finalist for the 2013 Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal and won the prestigious Prix France-Québec in 2014. Both novels were published in France. Her most recent book, the story sequence Madame Victoria, appeared in 2015.
Catherine Leroux lives in Montreal, where she is a full-time writer and translator.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Lazer Lederhendler is a full-time translator specializing in contemporary Québécois fiction and nonfiction. His translations have earned him many distinctions, including the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Cole Prize for Translation of the Quebec Writers’ Federation. His work has helped acquaint English-language readers with a new cohort of talented, innovative writers, such as Nicolas Dickner, Alain Farah, Perrine Leblanc, and Catherine Leroux.
The Party Wall Page 23