Happiness Has a Slippery Tail Book Launch
Schedule
Thu Nov 20 2025 at 05:00 pm to 07:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
2220 McGill College Avenue, Montreal, QC, Canada, Quebec H3A3P9 | Montreal, QC
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𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 and the 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐰𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 present a book launch for 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝑺𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑻𝒂𝒊𝒍 by 𝐀𝐛𝐥𝐚 𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐝 translated by 𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐖𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐳 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡.Join us as translator 𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐖𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐳 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 discusses and signs copies of 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝑺𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑻𝒂𝒊𝒍 by 𝐀𝐛𝐥𝐚 𝐅𝐚𝐫𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐝.
Admission is free.
𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊:
This novel paints the portrait of a Lebanese family that has settled in Montreal. The central figure is Dounia, a 75-year-old mother and grandmother. Hers is a story of loss—she first leaves her own village to live in her husband’s hometown, and then is wrenched from her homeland, not once but twice, to live in a strange land whose language and customs are foreign to her.
Dounia can neither read nor write, and she speaks only Arabic. Illiterate yet perceptive, nourished by Lebanese proverbs and pearls of wisdom, she has a unique and captivating voice. She struggles, yes, but manages to achieve fulfilment in her new world: “My home is where my grandchildren are, clinging to my neck, calling me Sitto Dounia […] in my language. I want to die where my children and my grandchildren live.”
𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑:
Judith Woodsworth is a translator and Distinguished Professor Emerita at Concordia University. A specialist in translation history and theory, she has published Translators through History (with Jean Delisle), the monograph Telling the Story of Translation: Writers Who Translate, and the edited volumes The Fictions of Translation and Translation and the Global City: Bridges and Gateways. She has translated novels by Pierre Nepveu, Abla Farhoud, and Felicia Mihali, and was the receipient of the 2022 Governor General’s literary award for French-English translation for History of the Jews in Quebec by Pierre Anctil. She was founding president of the Canadian Association for Translation Studies. Woodsworth holds a PhD in French literature from McGill University.
𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑:
Born in Lebanon in 1945, Abla Farhoud immigrated to Canada in 1951. She later moved back to Lebanon and spent some time in France. She studied theatre at the Université du Québec à Montréal and wrote several plays. In 1998, she published her first novel, Le bonheur a la queue glissante, for which she was awarded the Prix France-Québec – Philippe Rossillon. A number of acclaimed novels followed.
Abla Farhoud passed away in 2021. She is survived by her children—musician Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne, also known as Chafiik, and singer-songwriter Alecka Farhoud.
Register (English form) https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/happiness-has-a-slippery-tail-book-launch-and-tribute-to-abla-farhoud-tickets-1717111900919?aff=oddtdtcreator
Inscrivez-vous (formulaire en français) : https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/billets-lancement-du-livre-happiness-has-a-slippery-tail-et-hommage-a-abla-farhoud-1715908822479?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Where is it happening?
2220 McGill College Avenue, Montreal, QC, Canada, Quebec H3A3P9Event Location & Nearby Stays:
