My childhood - teenhood - lost and found

I was desperately searching - on a quest, actually - of books that had marked me during my childhood and my teenage hood.

I have author names, titles, which never quite left my memory : Denis Côté, Joël Champetier, Philippe Gauthier ... but I had these evasive stories which I couldn't remember neither the author nor the title. A pain.

I spent more than 10 years looking - searching - desiring to find them back !

And the heavens have their very own humor.

"The answer is at your feet!" and I quite mean that literally. My personal book library is facing my bed. There is one shelf at the level of my mattress, thus at m feet. On that shelf I have the smaller sized books and "romans" (stories). Tonight, for no particular reason but to check out if I could find anything at all through the Editor's website - not much hope floating around me, though - I took out a book. Le Bagarreur (Bad Boy in it's original title) and so I went on the Tysseyre edition website and nearly had a heart attack as titles from my past re-surfaced, with the same covers as when I was in grade school and in high school. Hope rose a little bit.

Until one page after another I kept on stumbling on titles that I had cherished through out my life.

I thought - and I could have sworn my life on it - that the title of this book I was so desperately searching for - was Un jeu dangereux ( A dangerous game ) but I found the light tonight. It's actually Un si bel enfer, by Louis Émond. Louis Émond - such a French name, how could I have forgotten it ! As a kid, I was very aware of the fact that I was an emigrant from an European country and how these authors had so perfectly French names.

In grade school, I had read this book about a girl, her mother and this man who keeps calling her Alice, while her name is Celia. It spoke of the dead, the afterlife, hypnosis and such. It basically addicted me to parapsychology and the Near Death Experiences and Life after Death themes - which consumed my teenage years. I remembered the story, but I couldn't remember the story - and as I flipped through the pages, I had the most delightful heart beat skip when I stumbled on the cover. Merveilles au pays d'Alice ( Wonders in Alice's country/world). That is the origin and the reason why I am Ailime on the internet. Celia is Alice spelled backwards. Ailime is Emilia spelled backwards ;)

Another one that I greatly appreciated and missed. It's a story about how scientist manage to reproduce a unicorn with the genetic code found inside a corpse found in an iceberg and they want to use the unicorn or it's horn for something bad but a girl saves him and runs away with him - ensues a very beautiful friendship and lessons of life. Clair de Lune


Random titles which marked me as a kid/teen

Le secret de Qader - Le chateau de fer - L'héritage de Qader
Edgar le Bizarre - L'Étrange amour d'Edgar
Panique au cimetière
La requête de Barrad - La prisonnière de Barrad - Le voyage de la Sylvanelle -
Les hockeyeurs cybernétiques
Red Lerouge