Of Vengeance

Synopsis:

“Let's be honest: Who hasn't fantasized about shooting someone in the face with a hunting rifle?”

One day, a thirteen-year-old girl decides to startle a classmate. Instead, she accidentally kills him.

And she likes it.

Over the years, she begins experimenting with murder. Her victims are, of course, people that deserve it: a careless driver, a CEO of an energy corporation that is destroying the planet, a rapist. Every crime scene is flawless — untraceable and made to look like an accident or suicide. But, as she sleepwalks through her day job and lives in a crummy apartment, one thing becomes increasingly clear: she needs more.

Because nothing compares to the thrill of violent retribution.

Awards

• The French version of this book won the Indigenous Voices Award for French Prose in 2018.

Reviews
"Kurtness writes smoothly … Readers into passive-aggressive fantasies will best appreciate this one."— Publishers Weekly

"This chiseled writing, this extraordinary character and this particular humour may seduce the most difficult reader." — Le Devoir

"A softly creepy look into a sociopath starting with her thoughts as a 12-year-old. Narrated in a non-linear fashion, she starts with an incident from her past and her philosophy of who deserves to be punished. She’s out for revenge on wrongdoers who bully or disrupt the environment. She grew up with loving parents and a nice home but this is how she is wired. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending but I can see how she evolved to commit that last act." — Audrey Huang, Belmont Books

Educator Information
Translated by Pablo Strauss, who has translated many works of Quebec fiction into English. He grew up in Victoria, B.C., and has lived in Quebec City for fifteen years.

Additional Information
160 pages | 5.00" x 7.00" | Paperback