Louise Penny chooses Ottawa instead of Washington for her latest novel's launch

Montreal Gazette

a day ago

New York Times bestselling author and Knowlton resident Louise Penny made headlines when she announced in March that, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against Canada, she would not travel to the United States to promote The Black Wolf, the 20th book in her enormously successful Gamache series. It comes out Oct. 28.
She realizes she is fortunate to be in a position to make that choice, she said: It will surely affect books sales and, by extension, the bottom line for her publisher, Minotaur. 'My publisher was so incredibly supportive and understands,' she said in an interview.
The book's U.S. launch was set for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. But in February, after Trump dismissed half the appointed trustees and the remaining board members, most of them his appointees, made him the chair of the historic institution, Penny joined the growing list of those deciding not to appear there. Instead, she moved the launch to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, where the 2,065 tickets for the Oct. 28 event sold out within hours. She'll travel to several Canadian cities for the book's publicity tour and a couple of virtual events will be live-streamed from the U.S., but it's the first time in 20 years that one of Penny's tours won't include stops south of the border.
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Trump has said repeatedly that he would like to annex Canada, turn it into the 51st state and take its vast mineral resources. In an instance of fiction presaging reality, one of the threads in The Black Wolf is a movement to make Canada the 51st state. Penny was concerned that people would think she 'just ripped off the headlines' — this although The Black Wolf was conceived three years ago and completed a year ago, long before the issue made the headlines.
The Grey Wolf, published last October, and The Black Wolf were designed together and intended as companion pieces, she said. Some of the pivotal scenes of The Black Wolf are set in the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a cultural building straddling Canada and the U.S. A black stripe running across the library floor and under the opera house seats marks the border between Quebec and Vermont. The book's publicity tour will end at the Haskell Nov. 1 and 2. In-person tickets are sold out but virtual event tickets can be purchased in Canada through Brome Lake Books and in the U.S. through Phoenix Books.
'It was fun to do that quick pivot from the Kennedy Center and the U.S. tour to National Arts Centre and then to end the tour at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House,' Penny said.
Since the Haskell opened in 1904, the citizens of both countries have used it without going through passport control and customs. In March of this year, Kristi Noem, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, approached the tape in the library denoting the border and stepped back and forth across it. On the American side, she said, grinning: 'U.S.A. No. 1.' Crossing the line into Canada, she said: 'The 51st state.'
'She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, 'U.S.A. No. 1,' and didn't even say 'Canada.' Just, 'the 51st state',' Haskell executive director Deborah Bishop, who is Canadian, told the Boston Globe.
'When I wrote The Black Wolf, I worried I'd gone too far, ' Penny said. 'I no longer have that fear.'
What frightens her, she told The Gazette, 'is that this is exactly what tyrants do: Who do they target? They target the libraries, the arts centres, the universities: places open to anyone who might have a dissenting thought.'
Penny said she believes that many people who voted for Trump 'thought he was one thing and now are beginning to realize that he is not what he pretended to be. The challenge is going to be for the Democrats to come up with a viable, thoughtful, articulate candidate.'
While it is true that many are glum about the current Trump administration, she said, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that his term will end. And meanwhile, 'it is so important to be optimistic, to look at friendships and support and do a lot of laughing. It is so important to know what we have.
'It is so easy to see the darkness,' she said. 'The tragedy would be if we allowed it to overshadow everything else.'