All Kidding Aside

Louis, a young queer man, lives in Pointe-aux-Trembles, in Montreal's east end, with his rap-obsessed, schizophrenic brother and their terminally ill father. While working at a Tim Horton's, Louis dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian.

Delivered in short, addictive chapters, All Kidding Aside deftly juggles themes of love, class, and grief with poetic mockery and spare, electric banter.

Poet, novelist, and screenwriter Jean-Christophe Réhel is the author of six collections of poetry. His first novel, Ce qu'on respire sur Tatouine, won the prestigious Prix littéraire des collegiens in 2019, was published by QC Fiction into English in 2020 as Tatouine, and was longlisted for Canada Reads. Réhel's TV series, L'air d?aller won the Prix des étudiants à Canneseries in 2023. He lives in Montreal.

ISBN: 9781771863803
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Publisher: Baraka Books
Published: September 01, 2025

"All Kidding Aside (...) takes its readers on a journey into a world woven with turbulent adventures, offering a deep and captivating exploration of brotherly love, precarity, and grief." Alice Laforce, le Nouvelliste"In Jean-Christophe Réhel's (...) 'love letter to comedy,' the poet and screenwriter wrestles with themes that challenge, yet never dip into pity. The winner of the Prix littéraire des collégiens celebrates the beauty the everyday... and laughs about it."Radio-Canada"Réhel pulls us into a rather gloomy universe of messy bedrooms, boot-slopped kitchen floors, soulless Timbits, objects of thoughtless gluttony, chunks of sandwich scattered in the street, carrots jammed into the bottom of a snowman's belly. But 'in the midst of all this baseness,' as Brassens might say, we witness real and touching human connections.? François Lavallée, Nuit BlancheReviews of Tatouine: ?A joy to read!? Shelagh Rogers, CBC?s The Next Chapter ?A novel of inventive, self-deprecating humour.? - Jade Colbert, The Globe and Mail