SL: I finished the first Donna Tartt novel, The Secret History, which for me is an example of a perfectly mastered novel. PS: Any books you found especially inspiring? I was able to make progress on my next book, and inroads in my to-be-read pile.

My life has always revolved around reading and writing, but the pandemic cut through the static from my second life as a bartender.

It gave me an opportunity to slow down and refocus. It’s hard on my brain! Confinement forced me to take a break and helped me concentrate better, and I was able to focus on reading and writing in a way I hadn’t for years. But it’s exhausting: the shifts are long, and we work late into the night. Bar work is good for me as a writer, because I can work a lot of hours in just a few days and then spend the rest of my week on my writing. And as a writer, I found it easier to step away from my routine at the bar and develop a writing schedule that is much saner and healthier. I usually write about experiences only much later, so if I ever write about this period we’re going through now, it will likely be in ten years.Īs a bar owner, I experienced great insecurity during the pandemic, but there were also swift government measures to help business owners and workers. So first of all, my life as a bartender in 2020 is very different from what you see depicted in The Dishwasher. Stéphane Larue (SL): The book describes life in the restaurant industry over fifteen years ago-a vanished world. Can I start by asking you to share a little about your experience of the pandemic, in Montreal, as both a writer and a hospitality worker? Has our changed world also changed how you see your novel? Pablo Strauss (PS): Stéphane, you’re not only the author of a book set in the restaurant world, but also the co-owner of a bar.

The interview has been translated from French to English, and condensed and edited for clarity. The Dishwasher ’s translator, Pablo Strauss, talked over Zoom with author St éphane Larue about pandemic life, Larue’s influences and vision of the novel, and the challenges of the translation process. Le plongeur, and now The Dishwasher, have also attracted an unusually broad and loyal readership, perhaps because the book faithfully depicts fields of experience rarely seen in literary fiction-the restaurant industry, gambling addiction, and heavy metal music-in a poignant and propulsively readable coming-of-age story. Originally released as Le plongeur in 2016, the novel has won multiple awards, including Quebec’s prestigious Bookseller’s Award and the international Prix Senghor. When Stéphane Larue’s The Dishwasher won the 2020 Amazon.ca First Novel Award (formerly the Books in Canada First Novel Award), it was the first translated novel selected in the prize’s forty-four-year history.

Le Plongeur by Stéphane Larue