In 2001, a woman's skeleton was found in the woods near Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. Extensive forensic testing revealed where the woman had lived, what she ate and even how she looked--but the remains were never tied to any missing person or identified. This real-life story of a skeleton dubbed "Madame Victoria" is the inspiration for Catherine Leroux's book of the same name, which imagines 12 possible histories for the unidentified bones.
Though billed as a novel, Madame Victoria (translated from the French by Lazer Lederhendler) reads more like a collection of linked short stories. Was she a teenage mother grieving the loss of her son, dying of cancer and oblivious to reality? Or a Russian spy, murdered by an ex-lover? A woman allergic to the presence of other people, or a slave running for freedom? "It was inferred from her tired bones and the sad features attributed to her, that she had ended up alone because she had made a mess of her life." But Leroux (The Party Wall) suggests otherwise, giving Madame Victoria a sense of purpose and direction, a life not made of messes but of intention.
Like any short story collection, some stories here are stronger than others. The best among them are those that capture Madame Victoria's quest to be seen, to be known, to be understood--an all-too-familiar feeling for anyone who has ever waited for someone simply to speak her name. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm