Theodore's world is shrinking. He cares for his grandfather, Émeril, whose dementia is increasingly tethered to a cryptic wartime past. Outside, a record-breaking heatwave has turned Quebec into a pressure cooker of domestic rage and inexplicable public violence.
In the shadow of this heat dome, the horseflies have arrived: large, predatory, and unnervingly persistent. To understand the infection taking hold of the province, Theodore must accompany Émeril back to Grosse Île, a secret military base where, in 1942, a young entomologist was conscripted to develop the perfect biological carrier.
Moving between the experimental horrors of the 1940s and a contemporary climate in crisis, Mireille Gagné's novel is a visceral exploration of the predatory relationship between human violence and the natural world.
"Inspired by historical facts, Mireille Gagné's new novel, Horsefly, at times takes on the appearance of a waking nightmare. Terribly disturbing, but furiously captivating."
La Presse
Longlisted — Prix littéraire France–Québec 2025
About the Author
Mireille Gagné was born in Isle-aux-Grues and lives in Quebec City. Since 2010, she has published books of poetry, short stories, and the remarkable novel Le lièvre d'Amérique (2020), which "possesses a universal wisdom, the kind that is passed down from generation to generation and from which we too often lose our way."