Happiness is Fleeting

This is the story of Dounia, a Lebanese woman who struggles with her new life in Quebec. Isolated by language and cultural barriers, she nevertheless has the resilience and strength of character to evoke both the tragic and joyful moments of her family life. This novel paints the portrait of a Lebanese family that has settled in Montreal. The central figure is Dounia, a 75-year-old mother and grandmother. Hers is a story of loss—she first leaves her own village to live in her husband’s hometown, and then is wrenched from her homeland, not once but twice, to live in a strange land whose language and customs are foreign to her. _x000D_ _x000D_ Dounia can neither read nor write, and she speaks only Arabic. Illiterate yet perceptive, nourished by Lebanese proverbs and pearls of wisdom, she has a unique and captivating voice. She struggles, yes, but manages to achieve fulfilment in her new world: “My home is where my grandchildren are, clinging to my neck, calling me Sitto Dounia … in my language. I want to die where my children and my grandchildren live.”_x000D_ _x000D_ Abla Farhoud was an actor and playwright before becoming a novelist in 1998 with the publication of this novel, the French title of which was Le bonheur a la queue glissante, awarded the France-Québec – Philippe Rossillon Prize. Other novels followed, including Le Sourire de la petite Juive (published in English as Hutchison Street), Le dernier des Snoreux, and the posthumous book Havre-Saint-Pierre. Abla Farhoud passed away in 2021.