School for Girls

By Ariane Lessard

A spooky feminist novella . . .ideal for Halloween!

Deep in the forest, a remote boarding school echoes with unspoken stories…

A boarding school deep in the forest carries the echoes of its past inhabitants. Hints of a disturbing history and the unfolding events of the present are refracted by the multiple voices of the girls who now live within its walls, their suggestive and enigmatic accounts interweaving in a rich and unsettling chorus.

PRAISE FOR SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

“A choral piece with gothic undertones. With an impressive multiplicity of forms, this book tackles a wide variety of themes, underpinned by a strong feminist voice.” (Benoît Vanbeselaere, Les Libraires magazine)

“A whole troupe of poisonous young girls, neither demonized nor deified, appearing in all the fragile ferocity of adolescence.” (Laurence Perron, Lettres québécoises magazine)

“. . . dark, fraught, frightening in places. And one to read in a single sitting.” (Silvia Galipeau, La Presse newspaper)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ariane Lessard was born in 1990 in Lévis, not far from a monastery of cloistered sisters. She published her first novel, Feue, in 2018, which was a finalist for the Rendez-vous du premier roman, a first novel award. She also took part in the first residency of L’Hôtel des autrices in 2020, a feminist digital platform created in Berlin during the pandemic, in which she wrote a novel in one month. School for Girls is her first novel to be translated into English.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Frances Pope is a translator and writer from the UK. She lived in Montreal between 2015 and 2020, where she received her MA in translation studies from Concordia University. Now living in Bristol (UK), she continues to translate in the arts and non-profit sectors, as well as reviewing and writing about electronic music. Frances has two published collections of poetry, Quarters (Ekstasis Editions) and The Brazen Forecast (Cactus Press), both published in 2020.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baraka Books
• Release date: Sep 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781771862929

Book preview

Ariane Lessard

SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

Translated from the French by

Frances Pope

QC fiction

Revision: Peter McCambridge

Proofreading: Elizabeth West

Book design: Folio infographie

Cover & logo: Maison 1608 by Solisco

Cover art: Getty Images

Fiction editor: Peter McCambridge

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Copyright © 2020 La Mèche

Originally published under the title École pour filles by La Mèche, une division du Groupe d’édition la courte échelle inc., 2020 (Montréal, Québec)

Translation copyright © Frances Pope

ISBN 978-1-77186-291-2 pbk; 978-1-77186-292-9 epub; 978-1-77186-293-6 pdf

Legal Deposit, 4th quarter 2022

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec

Library and Archives Canada

Published by QC Fiction, an imprint of Baraka Books

Printed and bound in Québec

Trade Distribution & Returns

Canada - UTP Distribution: UTPdistribution.com

United States & World - Independent Publishers Group: IPGbook.com

We acknowledge the financial support for translation and promotion of the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the Government of Québec tax credit for book publishing administered by SODEC, the Government of Canada, and the Canada Council for the Arts.

life plays in the plaza

with the self I never was

— Alejandra Pizarnik, Woman with Eyes Wide Open

translated from the Spanish by Cecilia Rossi

ghostly young girls breathing cold basement air

(How deep down were we

when we disappeared?)

— Carole David, The Year of My Disappearance

translated from the French by Donald Winkler

FALL

ARIANDRE

It isn’t the first time that Dame Dominique has cautioned me. She saw me push Annette and run to hide behind the shed. This is where Dame Dread does all the maintenance work on the main yard, repairing the fence, the paving stones that get slippery when it rains. It rained a lot in the last few weeks. The ground loses its shape without roots to hold it in place. The carpet of moss is soaked through with brown-looking water, here behind the shed. I imagine rakes, shovels, wheelbarrows, and other rusty metal tools are kept in there. I can’t be sure. Dame Dread, the caretaker, never lets us in. All I can see in the shed is rolls of sheet metal patched with rust, and the shingles that Dame Dread scrupulously repairs in the fall, ready for the coming winter. I pushed Annette because she’s a fool. She fell in the mud and her long dress got in the way so she couldn’t get up again. The way she follows me around seeking my approval, it was driving me round the bend. I’ve often glared at her, telling her with my eyes to stay away from me, but she always comes back. I don’t need a little sister, I don’t even need a friend, I’m perfectly fine on my own. Anyway, nothing she does is worth anyone’s attention. Hidden behind the shed, I look at the moss growing along the edge of the stone wall. It’s squashy and my feet sink into it. I like plants. I like how they smell, how they surround and cover. You can’t get away from them. Behind the shed is the forest. Once the snow starts to fall, I shall probably miss the woods. Everything will be different then. This is where I hide, behind the shed. Before, it was where the other Catherine used to come. I’m standing in her footsteps. Dame Dominique came and found me, shook me out of my thoughts. She put her hand on my forehead and told me to come back to class. Dame Dominique sets me straight. She knows I’m bright. In Literature, it’s my writing she likes the best—its ebb and flow, she says. That’s what you would hear if you could listen to people’s secret thoughts. All of it veined with mystery, creeping in until it’s all around you.

CORINNE

Before I came here, I lived with my parents and my brothers, away down the lane. In a farm village that smelled of manure. Fields, everywhere fields. Dirt lanes bordering them, sky over half