MAKING ROOM by Michel Trembly, translated...

MAKING ROOM by Michel Trembly, translated by Sheila Fischman (Serpent’s Tail: $12.95). French-Canadian author Michel Trembly examines the expanded meaning of the term “family” in this intriguing novel (the first of his works to be translated into English). Four-year-old Sebastien is initially puzzled when his father, Mathieu, a divorced, aspiring actor, decides to move in with another man. As Mathieu and Jean-Marc grapple with their identities and relationship, Sebastien tries to understand a world where mothers and fathers divorce, remarry and establish unconventional relationships to form multibranched family flora that resemble ground covers, rather than trees. By making room in his heart for “three daddies” (Mathieu, Jean-Marc and Luc, his stepfather), Sebastien learns to accept love whenever it’s offered sincerely.