Louis Penny, Three Pines. Québec

 

We can travel to south Québec thanks to Louis Penny's detective novels. Their protagonist is Chief Inspector Gamache and they are set (or connected) in an imaginary village called Three Pines. Montreal, Québec, Charlotte Islands ...are some the settings in her novels, great to read in English (and also published in Spanish by Salamandra publishers).

Once you get in Three Pines you live in English but enjoying French food and plenty to drink -as good heirs of their French inheritance. I also enjoy that she uses some words in French and many English words with a French origin. It's a cultural immersion in so many ways...I think it could be great to work with some students learning both languaguages because there are many references to the anglophones vs.francophones way of living and relate to each other in the region.

So great is her fame around the world that the publisher opened a blog where readers comment on the most important features of her books: the Canadian cultural references (art -painting mainly-, literature, Canadian landscapes and nature,, food)....

And talking about food, they have also published online and free some of the recipes belonging mentioned in the books (see below a beautiful document which you can print). There are also many readers who have published their own blogs containing the recipes of the meals mentioned in the books and commenting them. Although they can be read independently, I advise you to read them in order, as the charachers and the village evolve along the years.

One of the most important characters of the book, a poet called Ruth Zarco, impersonates and gives voice to Margaret Atwood's poems!!! wose poems you can read in every book, as for instance Half-hanged Mary.

Below you can see the list of her books in English, the blog and the recipes I told you about.

-THE GAMACHE SERIES:  https://www.gamacheseries.com/still-life/
-THE AUTHOR:  https://www.louisepenny.com/louise.htm

-THE RECIPES FROM THE BOOKS: https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/nature-of-the-feast/NatureOfTheFeast_Final.pdf

See you in Three Pines!

P.D. Louise Penny says the village Three Pines is not a place, but a state of mind with a cosy bistro and a B&B, a new and second-hand book shop, two wonderful artists, a Laurate poet, and a bunch of people who enjoy sharing food, drink , books, art and nature.

Publication Order of Inspector Gamache Books

Still Life	(2005)
Dead Cold / A Fatal Grace	(2006)
The Cruellest Month	(2007)
A Rule Against Murder / Muder Stone	(2008)
The Brutal Telling	(2009)
Bury Your Dead	(2010)
A Trick of the Light	(2011)
The Beautiful Mystery	(2012)
How the Light Gets In	(2013)
The Long Way Home	(2014)
The Nature of the Beast	(2015)
A Great Reckoning	(2016)
Glass Houses	(2017)
Kingdom of the Blind	(2018)
A Better Man	(2019)
All the Devils Are Here          2020 Shared by Mariví de la Rocha