What I Know about You

CBC BOOKS CANADIAN FICTION BOOKS TO READ IN FALL 2024

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 GILLER PRIZE

FINALIST FOR THE 2024 DAYNE OGILVIE PRIZE FOR LGBTQ2S+ EMERGING WRITERS

FINALIST FOR THE ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE

STARRED REVIEWS IN KIRKUS, BOOKLIST AND QUILL & QUIRE

A heartbreaking tale of a family and an impossible love, torn apart by secrets and traditions in late-twentieth-century Cairo.As a boy in 1960s Cairo, Tarek knows that his entire life is written in advance. He'll be a doctor like his father, marry, and have children. Under the watchful eyes of his mother and his sister, he starts to do just that - until Ali enters his life and turns it upside down. The two men, from very different worlds, embark on an unsayable relationship that threatens to tear apart Tarek's family.Years later, as Tarek is living a solitary life in Montreal, someone starts writing about him and to him, piecing together a past he wants only to forget. But who is the writer of this tale? And will he figure it out in time?A bestseller in its original Quebec edition, and the recipient of several awards, including the Prix Femina des Lyc?ens, What I Know About You is poised to be an international sensation.

"This novel is a searing love story that moves between Egypt and Montr?al, that shifts between hearts, highlighting the sacrifices the characters feel they have to make for the ones they love. Romantic, surprising, mesmerizing, and so devastating, What I Know About You examines the terrible costs of family secrets and toxic shame." - Suzette Mayr, author of The Sleeping Car Porter

Author: ?ric Chacour
Publisher: Coach House Books
Published: 09/24/2024
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.20w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781552454855


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 07/01/2024 pg. 28
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2024
Foreword 08/14/2024
BookPage 10/01/2024

About the Author

Born in Montreal to Egyptian parents, Éric Chacour shared his life between France and Quebec. A graduate in applied economics and international relations, he now works in the financial sector. What I Know About You is his first novel.

Pablo Strauss is the translator of twelve works of fiction, several graphic novels, and the screenplay of one feature film, White Dog (2022). He is a three-time finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation for The Country Will Bring Us No Peace (Coach House Books, 2020), Synapses (Talonbooks, 2019), and The Longest Year (House of Anansi, 2017). The Dishwasher, his translation of Stéphane Larue's Le plongeur, won the 2020 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. He has published essays, reviews, and translations in Granta, Geist, The Literary Review of Canada, The Globe and Mail and The Montreal Review of Books. Pablo grew up in Victoria, BC, and has made his home in Quebec City for fifteen years.