In 1966 there appeared in Paris a novel by a twenty-four-year-old Quebec writer who was totally unknown and who wanted to remain so. The author was Réjean Ducharme--and his book L'Avalée des avalés--revealed such an extraordinary literary maturity that many questioned the authenticity of the publisher's assertion that the work was indeed by this unknown young man. The publication of Ducharme's first novel turned into a literary event, which for a long time was considered "news" both in France and in Quebec. Translated immediately into four languages--and hailed by some as the "discovery of the century"--the book was one of six finalists for the Prix Goncourt, sponsored by several eminent French writers and literary critics. The author, however, continued to evade the public. None knew anything about him except what he himself had chosen to reveal in a blurb on the...