Maria Chapdelaine Hardcover - 2004

“The lovely writing is filled with interesting dialogue. Oil paintings on linen perfectly complement the details and the mood of the story. The rugged landscape, the seasons, the costumes of the times, and interior details are all intricately portrayed. The characters are painted in exaggerated and sometimes unnatural angles, which adds an almost primitive look to the story, which could not be more appropriate. Kupesic demonstrates a connection to these almost 100-year-old characters that the author surely would have appreciated.”
-School Library Journal

Louis Hemon's famous novel, Maria Chapdelaine, has been translated into more than twenty languages and is as closely associated with Canada as Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. Hemon was born in France in 1880 and did not witness the international success of his book -- he was killed by a train in 1913, a few months before the book's first publication. Already a published journalist, he wrote the text of Maria Chapdelaine while working as a laborer on a farm in Quebec. It was originally published as a serial in a Parisian paper and was later brought to Canada and published as a single book. Posthumously, several other works by Hemon were published, but none were as successful as this classic.
Rajka Kupesic was classically trained as a ballerina and danced in Europe while developing as a painter. As an artist, she is known for her unique handling of detail, color, and mood, which infuses the familiar with an extraordinary quality. Her paintings have been shown in numerous galleries worldwide and have been featured in magazines in France, Canada, and Japan, and in major collections around the world. Her first book, "Claire's Gift, " was awarded the Mr. Christie's Book Award for Best Children's Book. Rajka's illustrations also appeared in Tundra Books' Maria Chapdelaine which was published in 2004. Rajka Kupesic resides in Toronto with her husband Zlatko and their sons.