The Music Game by Stéfanie Clermont expertly captures the experience of the millennial generation, following three young women through a story of friendship, betrayal, romantic discovery, identity, sexuality and gender, feminism, and more.

Friends since grade school, Céline, Julie, and Sabrina come of age at the start of a new millennium, supporting each other and drifting apart as their lives pull them in different directions. But when their friend dies by suicide in the abandoned city lot where they once gathered, they must carry on in the world that left him behind—one they once dreamed they would change for the better. From the grind of Montreal service jobs, to isolated French Ontario countryside childhoods, to the tenuous cooperation of Bay Area punk squats, the three young women navigate everyday losses and fears against the backdrop of a tumultuous twenty-first century. An ode to friendship and the ties that bind us together, Stéfanie Clermont’s award-winning The Music Game confronts the violence of the modern world and pays homage to those who work in the hope and faith that it can still be made a better place.

Clermont effortlessly captures the modern LGBTQ+ experience in a way that seeps into every aspect of The Music Game; not only in the characters’ identities but through their actions and the story itself, reflecting our evolving, complicated, and ultimately unifying times. The original book in French was highly celebrated upon its release, winning various prizes. The book plays with form in a great way: it is not quite a novel, but not quite a collection of short stories, and Sutcliffe has done a wonderful job with its translation.

Born and raised in Ottawa, and now living in Montreal, this is Stéfanie Clermont’s first book, which garnered many awards and accolades within Quebec. It is now available for an English audience via translation by J.C . Sutcliffe

The Music Game is available from Biblioasis

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist based in Toronto with a focus on tourism, lifestyle, entertainment and community issues. He has written several travel articles and has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He’s willing to take on any assignments of interest, attend parties with free booze, listen to rants, and travel the world in search of the great unknown. He’s eager to discover the new, remember the past, and look into the future.