Claire Holden Rothman is a Montreal writer who taught literature at Marianopolis College for many years and headed the advanced fiction workshop at McGill University. She now makes her living translating and adapting scripts for television. She has also translated literary works, including the first novel written in French Canada, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé’s 19th century classic Le chercheur de trésors (The Influence of a Book), for which she won the John Glassco Translation Award. Claire’s own fiction publications include two collections of stories (Salad Days; Black Tulips) and a novel, The Heart Specialist.

Luc Lévesque is a celebrated Quebec novelist and the anointed Voice of a Generation. In his hometown of Montreal, he is revered as much for his novels about the working-class neighbourhood of Saint-Henri as for his separatist views. But this is 2001. The dreams of a new nation are dying, and Luc himself is increasingly dissatisfied with his life.

Hannah is Luc’s wife. She is also the daughter of a man who served as a special prosecutor during the October Crisis. For years, Hannah has worked faithfully as Luc’s English translator. She has also spent her adult life distancing herself from her English- speaking family. But at what cost?

Hugo is their troubled fourteen-year-old son. Living in the shadow of a larger-than-life father, Hugo is struggling with his own identity. In confusion and anger, he commits a reckless act that puts everyone around him on a collision course with the past.

Weaving together three unique voices, My October is a masterful tale of a modern family torn apart by the power of language and the weight of history. Spare and insightful, Claire Holden Rothman’s new novel explores the fascinating and sometimes shocking consequences of words left unsaid.