Nancy Huston Too Hot To Publish in US?

Though the Canadian born, Paris-dwelling author has had several of her previous novels published in America, it looks very likely that Nancy Huston‘s next one will not, even though it won France’s Prix Femina. The Globe and Mail discovers why: they wanted Huston to change portions of her text to avoid offending U.S. readers. Talks are reportedly under way to have McArthur & Co., Huston’s Canadian publisher, issue LIGNES DE FAILLE in English next spring, but Huston would not say more to the paper when asked for comment.

At issue, it seems, is the extent of the changes her North American representatives want. Kim McArthur, who published Huston’s previous two novels in English, said yesterday that the author “has promised us some slight revisions; it’s very tiny . . . maybe four sentences” to permit Lignes de faille to be published in 2007 in Canada and, possibly, the United States with a new English title, BIRTH MARKS. However, no contract has been signed as yet, and “it’s all just sort of very dicey,” McArthur acknowledged at the same time as she praised Lignes as “fantastic . . . It’s just riveting . . . She’s just so famous in France.”

Huston was far more candid in a september interview with Montreal’s La Presse,saying that “they want me to remove [enlève] half the pages concerning Sol, all of the material that revolves around Jesus, the war in Iraq, George Bush, the pornography, etc.” The French version of the novel has been a bestseller in Quebec.In that same interview, Huston said she believes that “contemporary America is reproducing the worst traits of Nazi Germany. I believe we are in a pretotalitarian state.” Whatever Huston’s opinions are, there’s no doubt that publishers are being extremely skittish about the prospect. “There’s a bit of a schism between the war in Iraq [as seen in France] . . . versus the point of view from America,” McArthur says. “You may remember ‘freedom fries.’ ” Given that Huston has lived more than half her life in France, her “view is completely credible there,” but “we [McArthur and Huston's agent, Rosalie Siegel] were taking the long view.”

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