Montreal Launch: What I Know About You by Éric Chacour

We're celebrating the launch of the English translation of Éric Chacour's novel, What I Know About You on Thursday, October 10th, at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly. Originally published in French, Ce que je sais de toi (Éditions Alto & Éditions Philippe Rey), What I Know About You is poised to be an international sensation.

In a tight-knit Levantine Christian family in 1960s Cairo, Tarek’s entire life is written in advance. He’ll be a doctor like his father, marry, and have children. Under the watchful eye of the family’s strong women, he starts to do just that – until a patient’s son, Ali, enters his life and turns it upside down. The two men’s unsayable relationship sparks a series of events as dramatic as the Six-Day War and assassination of President Anwar Sadat playing out in the background.

The turn of the millennium finds Tarek living as a doctor in Montreal. Someone is writing about him and to him, piecing together a past he wants only to forget. But who is the writer of this tale? And will Tarek figure it out in time?

From Cairo’s grand boulevards and hidden alleys to Montreal’s grim winter, from the reign of Nasser to the early 2000s, What I Know About You tells the heartbreaking story of a family torn apart by an epic love.

A bestseller in its original Quebec edition, and the recipient of several awards, including the Prix Femina des Lycéens, What I Know About You is poised to be an international sensation.

Buy a copy here: https://chbooks.com/Books/W/What-I-Know-About-You or at https://mtlshop.drawnandquarterly.com/item/eICIMlJ6k5HI_tx8HRhRHA

Born in Montreal to Egyptian parents, Éric Chacour has shared his life between France and Quebec. A graduate in applied economics and international relations, he now works in the financial sector in Montreal. What I Know About You is his first novel.

Pablo Strauss is the translator of twelve works of fiction, several graphic novels, and the screenplay of one feature film, White Dog (2022). He is a three-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for translation for The Country Will Bring Us No Peace (Coach House Books, 2020), Synapses (Talonbooks, 2019), and The Longest Year (House of Anansi, 2017). The Dishwasher, his translation of Stéphane Larue’s Le plongeur, won the 2020 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. He has published essays, reviews, and translations in Granta, Geist, The Literary Review of Canada, The Globe and Mail and The Montreal Review of Books. Pablo grew up in Victoria, BC, and has made his home in Quebec City for fifteen years.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, 211 Rue Bernard Ouest, Montréal, Canada