Autumn Rounds

A quiet man, living in an apartment in Quebec City, hears a marching band through his window. He looks out, sees the band and suddenly decides to join the crowd forming around them. So begins Autumn Rounds, a novel about love that unfolds late in life. The band turns out to be touring musicians, singers, and acrobats from France; among their number is a strangely familiar woman to whom the man feels very attracted. This is a bitter-sweet novel. Because it is his last tour, the man is acutely aware of the details of his life on the road: the way cats in the towns are attracted to his van because it was once a milk truck, how certain reading networks will soon be needing new coordinators, how hauntingly beautiful he and the woman find the landscape of the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River.band turns out to be touring musicians, singers, and acrobats from France; among their number is a strangely familiar woman to whom the man feels very attracted. This is a bitter-sweet novel. Because it is his last tour, the man is acutely aware of the details of his life on the road: the way cats in the towns are attracted to his van because it was once a milk truck, how certain reading networks will soon be needing new coordinators, how hauntingly beautiful he and the woman find the landscape of the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River.