Mattea Roach to host digital book club connecting readers across Canada
The Canadian Urban Libraries Council has selected Chris Bergeron's novel Valid, translated by Natalia Hero for the One eRead Canada campaign throughout the month of April.
Valid is a work of dystopian autofiction that explores the story of one trans woman leading a revolution in a "disturbingly transfigured" future Montreal.
As part of the campaign, Valid is available in both e-book and audiobook formats in English and French to all patrons of participating libraries.
Readers are able to access the book immediately without waitlists or holds.
Those with print disabilities can also find Valid in accessible formats on both the CELA and NNELS websites.
To celebrate, Bergeron will partake in English and French virtual book club events.
The English event will be hosted by Mattea Roach and recorded for a future episode of Bookends. It will take place on April 23 at 7:00 p.m. ET. Registration details can be found here.
The French event will be on April 24 at 7:00 p.m. ET, hosted by Radio-Canada's Katerine Verebely. The details are here.
S et in Montreal in 2050, Valid is an eight-hour monologue by Christelle, a trans woman who is forced to live as a man to stay alive.
At 70-years-old, she's held captive by an AI and sets off on her own revolution — a revelation of her true self.
Bergeron is a Montreal writer who currently works at Cossette, a global marketing agency. She previously ran the culture magazine Voir.
Hero, the French-to-English translator of Valid, is based in Montreal as well. Her short fiction has been published in Mag, Shabby Doll House, Cosmonauts Avenue and The Temz Review.
Her debut novel, Hum, was published in 2018.
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