Victor-Lévy Beaulieu has distinguished himself as one of Quebec's most prolific and innovative authors; he has also been a meticulous editor devoted to the province's nationalistic cause. His resignations from several prestigious editorial posts and his public statements at award ceremonies and in newspapers have repeatedly created controversy over the writer's role in a politically unsettled situation.

One of thirteen children of Edmond and Léonie Bélanger Beaulieu, Victor-Lévy Beaulieu was born in the village of Saint-Paul-de-la-Croix on the lower Saint Lawrence, a village identified with the nearby Saint-Jean-de-Dieu in both his novels and in interviews, where he frequently poses as one of his characters and likes to make puns on this place name (Saint-Jean-de-Dieu is also a large mental hospital in Montreal). The origin of Beaulieu's own first name is similarly ambiguous: according to some, he was christened Victor; others...