Émilie St-Germain

As a civil war shakes the Quebec province of Canada, Valerie is the sole survivor of a mass execution where her boyfriend is killed. Years later, she’s in a close relationship with her new partner, Gabriel. At the Long Term Care Center where she works as an orderly, she befriends Jeanne, an erudite and funny woman, dealing with an important physical handicap. Mixing realism and worrying strangeness, The Laugh presents a humane exploration of the survivor’s syndrome, the grieving process, the distance of time, the power of love, and the joy of being alive.

The story takes place in 1910 in Montreal, Quebec, while a killer terrorized the city. In the same period, Florence and Camille Courval, two sisters originating in French Manitoba inherit the Eden Museum, where statues of wax in connection with criminal news are housed.