Toast for Two Tongues is a vibrant celebration of the untranslatable. Through nine stories, Gisèle Villeneuve’s interpretation of bilingual life shows moments of complete understanding across culture, age, time, and planes of existence, that sweeten the sometimes-bitter friction between culture and language. The collection features four initial narratives that speak to four matching counterparts, all bound together by the provocative postface, “And What If You Burned My Bilingual Toast.” A blustery horse trader from Montana shares tall tales in a diner in Panorama, Saskatchewan. A woman trains herself to hold her breath underwater. Four climbers emerge from a day lost at Mystic Canyon. An unnamed narrator grapples with the death of his Czech parents. These Far Ouest stories bridge the gaps between myth and reality, exile and home. Bohemian, evocative, and deeply nourishing, this collection invites you back for seconds.
