Latest news with #LouisePenny
Wall Street Journal
3 days ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
How a Small Library in Vermont Became a Symbol of Resistance for Canada
DERBY LINE, Vt.—The stately, stone-and-stained-glass library in this tiny border town in the rolling hills of Vermont plays a pivotal role in Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny's forthcoming novel. In the book, a shadowy cabal has hatched a plot to tap Canada's vast resources by making it the 51st state. Penny's beloved Chief Inspector Armand Gamache meets with a U.S. contact at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, trying to foil the plan.
Edmonton Journal
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
'Disproportionately punish Canadians': Book industry worries about the possibility of tariffs in trade war
Article content Thousands of Canadian authors have dreamed of the success of blockbuster Canadian author Louise Penny, whose internationally beloved Inspector Gamache books are indisputably Canadian content, set in the made-up, quirky Quebec hamlet of Three Pines. But where a Canadian story is imagined, written, agented, printed, published, and promoted for maximum international market impact — these elements can be inextricably interwoven, even more so than a Chevy's various border-crossing automotive bits and parts — and impossible to reduce to the strict simplicity of a tariff.
CBC
30-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Louise Penny says attacks on Canadian sovereignty are ‘beyond disconcerting'
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Canadian author Louise Penny about cancelling the U.S. dates on her book tour and supporting the Haskell Free Library and Opera House on the Canada-U.S. border.
CBC
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Author Louise Penny says she didn't think twice before cancelling U.S. book tour dates
Canadian novelist Louise Penny says the decision to cancel her U.S. dates for an upcoming book tour didn't take long to make. "It was immediate," Penny told The Current 's host Matt Galloway. "I just realized that when Trump brought in the 25 per cent tariffs that I … couldn't enter a country that had declared war on us." Penny first announced the decision to scrap the U.S. dates for her forthcoming book called The Black Wolf — including the launch, which was set to take place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. — last week in a Facebook post. It will be the first time in 20 years, she says, that one of her tours won't include stops south of the border. "I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but given the ongoing threat of an unprovoked trade war against Canada by the U.S. president, I do not feel I can enter the United States," she wrote in part. While she says she regrets the impact it will have on American fans, travelling to the U.S. while fellow Canadians are facing "ruin" would have felt hypocritical. Penny told Galloway why she thought it was important to do her part to help Canada in the trade war, and how a plot point in her forthcoming book is now more relevant than ever. Here is part of their conversation. You wrote also last week, "So the tariffs have come in. Support for Ukraine paused. What's next? Who's next?" How do you understand this moment? Things are coming at us so quickly, it's hard to grasp, isn't it? The tariffs and then that obscene event in the Oval Office happened. And then USAID and women's rights…. It's such a parade of shame. I've been thinking about Martin Niemöller. The … Lutheran pastor in the Second World War who wrote [the poem First They Came ]. WATCH: More Canadian vacationers skipping U.S. amid trade tensions More Canadian vacationers skipping U.S. amid trade tensions 28 days ago Duration 2:02 That's what I see happening now. I don't think, Matt, there is a single country that has ever been invaded, a single people who haven't been targeted, a single individual who hasn't been rounded up, who hasn't looked back and wondered what they missed.… What moment, what window was there where this could have been stopped? There's no belief in me that my … declaring grandly that I'm not going to the States and we've cancelled the tour is going to change anything. But … I can guarantee you, if we are silent, nothing is going to change. There are people and many, many Americans who have said this is a brave stance and that they support you. And then there are people who say that they read you because they want to be taken out of the world that we're in right now, and they're not interested in political views, and they don't want to hear those political views. Well, then they can go elsewhere. I don't see this as political, really. I see this as moral. I see it as ethical, which has no boundaries. If the Biden administration had done the same thing, I would have reacted in exactly the same way. As I said in the post, this is a moral wound, and it's up to us now to stand up and do something. [The tour] will end at a very specific place, which is in many ways symbolic of that border between Canada and the United States. This is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House that's right on the border between Quebec and Vermont. Yeah, it's an extraordinary place. It was built more than 100 years ago by the two communities, the United States and Canada, as a symbol…. There's a [border] line drawn straight through the opera house and free library. [The library] is symbolic of this friendship, a really important friendship between the two nations. And I would love for Americans to come to this event, and Canadians, and do what Trump is trying to destroy and to prove that he can't. It cannot be undone, the friendship, the profound friendship between these two nations. This book is coming out in the fall, and am I getting this correct? That there is some hint of … this 51st state business? It's hard to believe, but yes. I wrote the book The Black Wolf a year ago. And in it … part of the plot [is about] what happens when a certain group decides that Canada should become the 51st state because of our resources, because of the wealth that we have in minerals and in oil and water. What happens when the nation to the south is running out of all those things, particularly water, and sees what we have? But you know, Matt, I have to say, my fear when I wrote that was, "have I gone too far? Are people going to believe this?" And now, obviously, I don't think I've gone far enough.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Canadian author Louise Penny announces U.S. boycott amid 'unprovoked trade war'
Celebrated Canadian author Louise Penny announced Friday that she will be boycotting the U.S. due to President Donald Trump's plan to put tariffs on all goods from Canada. In a statement posted to her official Facebook account, the murder mystery novelist called Trump's actions "an unprovoked trade war against Canada," and said she does not feel she can enter the U.S. "until that economic sword, that could throw hundreds of thousands of Canadians (as well as Americans) into poverty, is removed completely." Trump imposed tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico Tuesday, before walking some of them back two days later. The president is now threatening to implement tariffs on Canadian dairy and lumber as early as Friday. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday slammed Trump's tariffs as "a very dumb thing to do." The novelist called her decision not to travel to the U.S. "painful," adding that she has made many personal and professional friends stateside. "But…enough," she wrote. "What is happening is not just a potential economic catastrophe for Canada and so many other nations, it is a moral wound." Penny also announced that she will no longer do in-person events in the U.S., ending a 20-year stint of touring the country. The creator of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels was planning a launch event for the 20th installation of the series, "The Black Wolf," at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., but will now be hosting it in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre on Oct. 28. "Please understand this decision is not meant to punish Americans," she wrote in her statement. "This is about standing shoulder-to-shoulder with my fellow Canadians." The author said she hopes Americans will still attend her Canadian events, where they "will be welcomed with open arms." Penny is best known for her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, which was turned into the 2022 Amazon Prime miniseries "Three Pines." The eight-episode series featured British-American actor Alfred Molina as Gamache, a charismatic and talented inspector solving crimes in Quebec. The author also co-wrote the 2021 political mystery thriller "State of Terror" with Hillary Clinton. The book kicks off with a new U.S. president choosing a political enemy as secretary of state and avalanches into a series of terrorist attacks from political adversaries that the administration must address. A representative for Louise Penny did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This article was originally published on
