Boundary: The Last Summer

Boundary, a small town on the border of Maine and Quebec, serves as a summertime reprieve, a site on which “a few city-dwellers seeking peace and quiet chose to build cottages.” This sense of “paradise” and reprieve, however, is disrupted by the apparent murder of a teenage girl and the fear and danger that occur in that death’s aftermath. The ensuing murder investigation, carried out formally by law enforcement and informally by Boundary’s residents, invites inquiry into the nature and history of Boundary just as much as of the crime’s suspects.

Andrée A. Michaud’s novel, translated from French by Donald Winkler, offers touching moments amid its mystery. Michaud’s use of a variety of points of view enables a wide range in the content of these moments, from the thrill and fear of adolescence to the haunting responsibility of investigating the cause of a young person’s death. Just as much a meditation on the nature of family, community, and trauma as it is a mystery novel, Boundary provides moments of emotional nuance with such depth that they would make for a compelling novel on their own.