Dany Laferrière: Death in the Bay of Chaleurs

I’d like to point out that I am in a somber mood. I think about death, not necessarily my own, rather that of everyone. There are more of us from over there than from here, but this time over there is not the homeland, it is the country before birth. I am sitting in the back of a gray van reading a novel by Victor-Lévy Beaulieu. A little drowsy. I just saw my face in the window, and it is of rare gravity. The tall spruces on both sides of the road. From time to time, a bright spot shows a clearcut in the forest. Yellow John Deere tractors. A