Jean-Yves Soucy

The Abitibi region of Quebec, spring 1959. The Simards, a working- class family from Montreal, decide to try their luck and settle on a scrub farm. As they travel north, they pass derelict farm buildings and overgrown fields - it is apparent that others have failed to do what they now set out to do.

The novel focusses on the Simard sons, Robert and Remi, and is told from their point of view. Just entering puberty, they react to the tedium and seeming hopelessness of the life of the adults around them by creating a fantasy life. In quest of this, they often slip out of the house for nocturnal rambles, spying on neighbors and seeking an ideal woman to fall in love with. They create their own cult - complete with ceremonies, an idol, and a shrine in a cave - in opposition to the power of the church, represented by the arrogant and bigoted Father Rivard.

In Knights of Darkness, Soucy portrays adults with limited resources leading stultifying lives, relieved only by drinking, card playing, and sexual misadventures. At the same time he captures the coming of age of two imaginative and determined boys as they move into adulthood and personal independence. And in lush style, he recreates the mystery and isolation of the Abitibi as it exerts its influence on all the characters.

A novel of social realism, adolescent imagination, and political allegory, Knights of Darkness will delight all readers of fine Canadian writing.