Women, voices – and the most pretentious ways to get canoes mentioned in as many short stories as possible. A dentist reminds her patient how important the jaw is to the woman's voice; old friends discuss the changes in their voice over their years apart; a woman tasked with recording an audiobook of Poe's "The Raven" finds her voice a potential issue. Superlative in comparison is the story of a man who has kept his wife's 'sorry, we're not here' message on the ansaphone response for the five years and more she's been dead, in order to still hear the only recording of her, and relearn the 'we' she speaks of. A graduating class has a primal scream over a bonfire together one night – and the girl whose brother can barely stammer a phrase of congratulations ends up losing her voice. Someone interviews a witness to a UFO landing.

Throughout, the reader has to be patient with pretentious vocabulary, and – in the novella that is half the length of the whole thing in itself – page-long sentences. None of it is heinously bad, but life, being a thing where we don't have our voice for that long, could well be spent on something more worthwhile. And yes, it might as well have been elephant, or aspirin, or pacifier – the use of canoe for all the pieces was completely arbitrary.

I didn’t love all the stories, but did enjoy this. My favorite story was the one with the driving lessons. The feelings of not fitting in really spoke to me; it was very relatable.

I rarely seem to make room in my reading life for short stories. However, every time they are recommended to me, like Canoes was, I always enjoy them.
Even though this collection of short stories and a novella are titled Canoes, and they do have a canoe in each of them to tie them together, the real theme of the stories is voices. The women and the setting of each one are written so well that they leap off the page. This is a testament to both the author Maylis de Kerangal and the translator Jessica Moore.

Canoes will especially be enjoyed by readers who love short stories. However, I urge those who often shy away from short stories to dip into the ones in this collection, especially Mustang and A Light Bird.

Many thanks to #Netgalley and #Archipelago for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Short stories, some longer than others, all have at least one canoe in them, but what binds them together is voice. Descriptions of the actual goings on when we talk (larynx, jawbone, inner ear, etc.) and the impact of words, sentences as they linger. In the stories, the main characters are navigating different situations (a dentist appointment, an audiobook recording, a UFO sighting, a driving lesson) that pull in the reader.. The characters are so well drawn they jump off the page.

The other thing I kept thinking about when reading the stories about voices was language. Canoes was translated from French, so while Maylis De Kerangal chose every word with precision, in Jessica Moore's translation they're exquisite in English. The writing makes me want to seek out more from both author and translator.

My thanks to NetGalley and Archipelago for the digital ARC.

Canoës is a collection of stories by Maylis de Kerangal who is an author new to me.

I have to confess that I actually read the first couple of stories without noticing the change. The language simply seemed to flow so seamlessly that it felt like a novel I was reading.

Nevermore was my favourite story with Mustang coming a close second although the final one, Arianespace was also intriguing. All the stories have some connection with canoes even if it only plays a very small part, i.e., a description of the way something looks.

De Kerangal is an award winning writer and it certainly shows in the exquisite prose. All the stories are beautiful but I'm sure other readers will choose different favourites. I'd like to start the book all over again right now.

Thankyou to Netgalley and MacLehose Press for the advance review copy.

Canoes
By Maylis de Kerangal
Translated from the French by Jessica Moore

A slim collection of short stories, bookending a novella, they are unrelated in narrative, but share a theme of voice and sound. Each story contains the word "canoe", a device that makes me think of a charm bracelet.

De Kerangal's writing is highly distinctive. Her vocabulary can be challenging, throwing out words I have never used myself and may only have come across once before, sometimes never, but she tends to embed them in lists that layer descriptions, each word refining the definition of the particular thing she is getting at, until, like tuning into a frequency, you realise just what she means.

I care more for some of these stories than others. They are rather like a collection of images, of sensations, like the memory of experiences, so some resonated strongly with me, like the daughter imploring her father to erase the recorded voice of her dead mother from their answering machine. I appreciate but wasn't moved particularly by Bivouac, Nevermore and Ontario, but I honestly could read this author's work anytime regardless of the storyline, simply because her words and phrasing are so interesting to me. In the way that she converts scientific and mechanical processes into a literary experience in The Heart, here she finds the perfect words to explore the textures and shapes of sound and silence, their unique signifiers, and the sensorial experience that creates.

This collection, and the creative style of this author might not be for every reader, but in the right hands this is compelling and thought provoking, emotional and reflective.

English version publication date: 29th October 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review purposes.

A wonderful collection of short stories in translation. I enjoyed how there were stories set all over, including Canada. I also liked how varied the stories were from one another. And just a thimble full of weird.

Canoes by Maylis de Kerangal is an interesting selection of literature. This collection of short stories felt connected and in-depth in a manner that is difficult to explain but one that is certainly felt by the reader. The women in these stories are strong and vibrant, their voices are very tangible. The reader feels the emotions of these characters. Although I'm not usually a great fan of short stories, this book held my attention and I did not want to put it down. These stories will draw the reader in and they will be caught up in the emotion of the tales. The translator, Jessica Moore, also did some wonderful work here. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to Archipelago, Maylis de Kerangal, and NetGalley for the allowing me the opportunity to read and review this e-galley.