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Mathieu lives in the street by choice, eschewing drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol. His main companion is his dog Sam, a pitbull, who he says has helped keep him alive. When Sam disappears, Mathieu's frantic search to find her brings him into confrontation with the secrets of his own past and the pain and grief that drove him onto the street. The novel is a monologue from Mathieu's point of view, a sort of confessional in which Mathieu opens up to the reader. In flashbacks to his past, we discover the tragedies of his life and the people he has lost. In this book about survivors, Bienvenu takes a tender look at the underside of our cities, and the people that get left behind.
About this Author
Sophie Bienvenu is an author and screenwriter. Her first novel, Et au pire, on se mariera, was published by La Mèche in 2011, and with France's Éditions Noir sur Blanc in 2014. It earned her the Prix des Arcades de Bologne in 2013 and the Prix du premier roman de Chambéry 2015, and she co-wrote the adaptation for the big screen by director Léa Pool in 2017. Chercher Sam, her second novel, published in 2014 by Cheval d'août, was well received by critics and readers, and was on Ici Radio-Canada's top 100 books. She likes: pit bulls, feminism, Montreal, the UFC, getting tattoos and wearing her boyfriend's clothes. She hates pineapple, but takes no issue if you like them.
Rhonda Mullins is a translator living in Montreal. She won the 2015 Governor General's Literary Award for Translation for Jocelyne Saucier's Twenty-One Cardinals and is a five-time finalist for the award. Her translation of Anaïs Barbeau-Lavallette's Suzanne was a 2019 finalist for CBC Canada Reads, as was her translation of Saucier's And the Birds Rained Down, in 2015.
Reviews
"Among the strengths and the pleasures of Searching for Sam is Bienvenu's going against the stereotype of the homeless person who is on the street because they are unable to maintain social and affective connections. Mathieu has a community around him, and those of his connections that have broken mostly didn't do so because of him."
--Elise Moser, Montreal Review of Books
"It would be a good read for a teen, given the clarity of the language and its subject matter. " --Elise Moser, Montreal Review of Books
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