Une adoration

In Nancy Huston’s new novel the charactersparticipate in a legal hearing of a highly singular variety, unfolding outsideof real time and place. They each give testimony in front of a mysteriousmagistrate who turns out to be none other than the reader herself or himself,presenting their respective and often contradictory version of the death—andlife—of a certain Cosmo. Among the witnesses are a number of deadpeople, the novelist, a Lebanese cedar, a wisteria, a footbridge, and agorgeous Algerian knife (probably the murder weapon). Cosmo is the onlycharacter whose voice is never heard, but his portrait is gradually sketched outand coloured in by the stories and memories of others in his village. Vivid and original, Nancy Huston’s AnAdorationis a tour de forcecertain to resonate with fans of Chocolat and Amélie.