The Fat Princess

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French Studies at the University
of Guelph. She is the author of Courts métrages et instantanés and La
Soupe.

The princess in this absolutely charming book is not fat. She is a
four-year-old little girl who has diabetes and needs to wear glasses
through which she looks at us with critical eyes. Critical, precocious,
and acerbic, Charlotte, who lives in St. Louis Square in Montreal,
investigates the world and cheerfully explains its mysteries, from sex
to dreams, to the reader. Throughout the book, Girard maintains the
right tone—right for a precocious four-year-old—without ever falling
into sentimentality.

Susan Ouriou’s translation is, as Aritha van Herk remarks in the
back-cover copy, “subtle and effortless.” The cover art by Barbara
Klunder reflects the colorful spirit of the text. Billed as “a story
for grown-ups,” The Fat Princess should appeal to adolescent girls as
well.