The Four-Doored House

The Four-Doored House evokes two key women in Pierre Nepveu’s life. First, his granddaughter Lily, who he imagines maturing into a complex world, haunted by her memory of him as he is haunted now by her projected self, navigating an era awash in uncertainty and unease. Imbued with both wonder and disquiet, it is an aging poet’s celebration of childhood, as well as a meditation on his own “future absence.” There follows his celebration of C, the woman with whom Nepveu shares his nights and days. These are love poems dedicated to a companion who has aided him in finding “new phrases that reformulate the impossible.” The culmination of a brilliant career, translated into fluent and thrilling English by Donald Winker, The Four-Doored House is Nepveu’s most enduring work yet.

Reviews

“The striking, densely packed, remarkably translated poems of The Four-Doored House deserve time spent with them as they stretch out time across verses, thoughtfully observing loved ones and the self throughout life.” – Robyn Fadden, Montreal Review of Books

“Both Winkler and Nepveu have won Governor General Awards for Literature—one of Winkler’s is for the previous translation of Nepveu’s The Major Verbs, which was also published by Véhicule Press. The voice here, passed from one writer to the next, is a remarkable culmination of their previous collaborative work. It is a career-defining collection for both artists.” … “The Four-Doored House is love poured into exact and moving images.” … “It is a profound, generative, whirlwind of a collection that wants to shatter the linearity of time.” – Emily Mernin, Canadian Notes and Queries