I'm trying to read more translated literature and this one intrigued me because it was translated from French and set in Quebec. After a surfing accident on vacation in which he almost dies and wrecks a young woman's knee, celebrity chef Adam returns home with an emptiness inside him that creates irreparable distance in his partnership with Marion. The two never married or had children and a lot of their angst also comes from society judging them for that, but their lifestyle choice seems to have happened without any agency on their part. As a childfree person who never married my partner I found it hard to relate to them. I don't feel guilty or regret for my choices because of societal pressure. Because of that pressure you have to really commit to the choice and I felt Adam and Marion were just resigned to the way of things but secretly wanted a family.

The first half of the book had me intrigued, the author's writing style is beautiful and had Sally Rooney vibes in terms of dissections of family pain. As a mentally ill person myself I know depression can be triggered by anything, but the focus on this book was on the class differences, privilege and Adam's selfishness in getting so consumed by survivor's guilt that he buys a sugar maple stand on a whim without consulting his wife. He kept trying to replace the family who lived on the farm with his own broken one that couldn't be mended with wealth. I felt no sympathy for him and just kept thinking poor little rich boy.

I felt even less sympathy for Marion, who wasn't supportive at all, musing on her once alpha male partner turned into a weak and crying man who repulsed her, and turned from her people-pleasing ways to be more self-absorbed and toxic. Her cheating was viewed as something she was entitled to do given the circumstances which I found bothersome.

Then the two of them have no satisfying ending, they're just drifting along in their sad and lonely gilded cages, and the POV switches suddenly to that of the victim of the surfing accident, who heaps classist disdain on the couple so desperate to please and unaware of the gulf between them and the novel ends. Like real life, I suppose, there's no definitive narrative arc, but frustrating in a book.

This may have worked better as a short story but as a novel it was hard to stay engaged with the minimal plot and the ending was unsatisfying.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I didnt like this book. Too much association and normalizing cheating and brushing it off. I think it lacked plot, and it was just boring and felt pointless to me. I did not enjoy reading this book at all.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and especially the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review of the book!!

I'm not sure if I read this at the wrong time or whether it was that it is translated, but I couldn't connect very well with the story or characters in this book. I enjoyed it well enough when I picked it up but I always felt I was skirting the surface and missing the deeper themes. I have read translated fiction many times before and enjoyed them but I think something can be lost in terms of cultural styles of writing, so maybe that was it.
I didn't feel that it was badly written or that the story didn't work - I'm 100% sure that many people will really like it and that it just wasn't the book for me at the time I read it. The characters are fleshed out and the events that happen feel totally believable.
The disintegration of a seemingly strong couple is laid out in all its rawness and that kind of 'witnessing from a distance' third person style works well to show the almost apathy that both people have towards their relationship by the end.

Set in 2008, Sugaring Off explores the lives of Adam and Marion, a Québécois couple, after an unsettling surfing accident. Physically unharmed, Adam psychologically unravels and his relationships are disrupted. Britt's account of this unravelling focusses our attention on the superficiality of the couple's lives and their fallible efforts to pursue more physically grounded lives. Britt's prose invites readers to see Adam and Marion in a critical light as their very real unhappiness is cushioned by their wealth and their inability to perceive and respond to others' pain is uncomfortable to witness. Britt offers both contrast and class critique in Celia, the young woman injured in the surfing accident, and the Sweet family, whose maple sugar business gives the novel its title. Through Celia and the Sweets the reader sees glimpses of less superficial ways of living. Linking authenticity with class position can be tricky to pull off and it's accomplished here by making Adam and Marion largely sympathetic characters. While there are a handful of moments where Susan Ouriou's translation slips into non-idiomatic English, the otherwise smooth translation makes for satisfying reading. This is my first time reading Fanny Britt and I'm curious about the rest of her work. Much thanks to Book hug for providing access to the reading copy.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC!

The first of three translated French-Canadian reads I’ve read recently, and it was a bit of a miss for me unfortunately. I used to eat up books about middle and upper class people’s issues and inner lives, but the high levels of infidelity and sheer ignorance about their privilege just did nothing for me. I wanted to hear more about Celia and her grandparents’ salt water taffy business, not Adam whining about how he almost died (when Celia was the one truly injured) and talking about how demanding his job as a millionaire TV chef is. It could have done something really interesting with masculinity and mental health, but not one of the characters (bar Celia who we see for like 2 chapters) was redeemable to me, and the lack of awareness was painful. Adam’s partner Marion was honestly awful.

However, there obviously was something compelling about it as I did finish it. Nice translation by Susan Ouriou.

“Sugaring Off” by Fanny Britt follows a man and his partner after a near-death surfing accident.

After nearly drowning, Adam struggles resuming his normal life and finds respite in a maple farm he decides to purchase on a whim. Meanwhile, his girlfriend finds his neediness suffocating and looks for relief elsewhere as she become indifferent. The book takes a look of marriage and what it means to stick together in the bad times. Like the maple trees, their marriage goes through wounds for the sugaring off.

I like that we don’t know who the narrator is talking about until a few lines in during the prologue. It was neat hearing the story of the surfing accident from both sides too, but the alternating points of view felt a bit choppy.

Thanks @bookhugpress for the NetGalley ARC of the English translation version (out October 8)!

|::| Only one more hour and I’ll got back to the land, Adam promised himself. He’d taken to calling it the land rather than the sugar maple stand or shack. He liked the permanence of the designation that pointed to something bigger than a place, more lasting than property. There could be both a spiritual and macabre sense to returning to the land, to the earth – and you had to admit, that’s what he, the good – time Charlie, the leading light of the best kitchens in the metropolis, the lover of food and flesh to touch or to taste, always the joker, was going through.
That’s incorrigible Adam had morphed into damp, dark soil, teeming with worms and pitted with roots, a malleable, subservient matter, designed to die – or to be reborn. |::|

Adam is in his twilight years, with two kids, a marriage and a new younger wife, a celebrity in his own right and wealth to stabilize and afford him the best in life. He is winning in all aspects. But the trip away with his wife and good friends took on a terrible, unbeknown, life changing alternate reality when an accident gone wrong, set a course for each person who witnessed it, on a dark and isolating ride, forcing each of the participants to look at themselves from the inside, poisoning the good intentions each person had, or believed they have.

Although a short book, I found it fascinating. The words being used to describe the emotions and feelings of each character sung out to me and I couldn’t put it down. I could imagine it happening, this story, Adam, Cecilia, and Marion somewhere in the world.. Right now. Going through the hardships that comes with one innocent activity going wrong.

This. Is. A. Work. Of. Art.

This was an unusual book, a very introspective study of two people (Canadians) in a long term relationship and how a near-death experience of the male character, Adam, affected every aspect of their lives going forward. It's amazing how your perspective can change given your life experiences. The accident took place in the U.S. on the east coast beach and involved a woman who had her knee destroyed after the surfboard crashed into her. The author gives you a glimpse of her life as well and how she was impacted by this aspect. All this takes place within the context of Adam's purchase of a maple farm and how he felt he could positively impact his life by immersing himself in the sugaring off process and by becoming 'one' with the family who he purchased the farm from. Nothing turned out the way any of the characters expected and to be honest, it was a bit depressing of a read. If you are interested in an introspective view of life at middle age, this is the book for you. Thank you to the author and publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

When Adam runs into Celia while surfing, injuring her and forever changing both their lives, his near-death experience sends him on a hunt for meaning and closeness while his hyperfocus slowly pushes his partner away.

A look at a relationship on the brink of change, Britt's novel is full of quiet rage and resentment. It touches on class, race, and culture while reminding us that our basic needs for support and love are universal.

The writing and translation is lovely and I found myself flagging passages every few pages.

This story is a force to be reckoned with, tackling intensely complex feelings of grief, regret, and depression. Focusing on the aftermath and messy feelings of a "perpetrator" in an violent accent, rather than the victim, creates a dynamic of uneasy sympathy for the readers that is too captivating to ignore. I really enjoyed Britt's use of long, run on sentences to convey the characters sense of panic and frenzied way of thinking. The characters themselves were just loveable enough to feel for them, but also flawed enough to be frustrated with their actions, which I think creates the perfect storm. Ouriou also does a great job with the translation, which flowed easily enough to make the reader forget that it was ever written in another language in the first place.

Britt really masters the uncomfortable emotions that can disarm everyone involved in a traumatic event--it is a tense and anxious read, but one I think most people could relate to.

I wanted to love this book but struggled to connect with the writing or story, leading to a DNF. Thank you to the publisher for the arc- I wish the author success and hope this does well when it comes out this fall!

A complex story full of relationships in trouble and challenges for the characters to overcome. The writing is not light by any means and I think it was over my head. This took away from the type of book I desired. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Alex is a wealthy middle aged man who fills his time with expensive hobbies. In Martha’s Vineyard he has bought a sugar "farm" and has hired one of the previous owners to show him how to make taffy (a confection known as chews in the UK), and tap maple trees for maple syrup.
He has a problematic relationship with his daughter, having had sporadic time with his two children since his divorce.
He’s also still surfing, inexpertly, and careers into a young woman on his surfboard, Celia, causing catastrophic damage to her knee.
This causes fractures across Alex’s life. His girlfriend of 10 years, Marion, can’t stand how he’s become a snivelling and self pitying wreck. He tries to get close to the family who ran the sugar farm for years, to extract their fortitude and strength. Marion seeks diversion in flings.
Everything comes to a head at Marion’s 40th birthday party.
Not an easy read, and very rambling and fractured at the beginning. But has some astonishing moments of insight.

Unfortunately had to DNF this one - it just didn’t grab me at all and I wasn’t enjoying the story in the slightest.