Street of Riches (New Canadian Library S.) - Softcover

"Miss Roy has applied her special gifts of memory and reflective wit to the French Canadian scene. Once again her sharp observation and way with words create and fix a reality informed by charm and meaning."--"Catholic World"
"The stories vary greatly in mood, in purpose, in length, but never in sensitivity. . . . Some are very amusing and most are touched with humor in delicate ways, but the tone of the whole is of sadness, of lost dreams, of adjusting illusions to life. . . . A lovely and appealing book, written with great skill."--"Kirkus"

"A book of sketches, brief personal essays, reminiscenes, and full stories, all beautifully composed as individual pieces and all coming together, in collective design, as a work of insight, awareness, and illumination. . . . They are a memorable pair, Maman and Papa, deeply seen and beautifully rendered. But indeed all of the persons of this book are rendered with a gentle, exact clarity."--"New York Times"

Gabrielle Roy was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, in 1909. Her parents were part of the large Quebec emigration to western Canada in the late nineteenth century. The youngest of eight children, she studied in a convent school for twelve years, then taught school herself, first in isolated Manitoba villages and later in St. Boniface.

In 1937 Roy travelled to Europe to study drama, and during two years spent in London and Paris she began her writing career. The approaching war forced her to return to Canada, and she settled in Montreal.

Roy’s first novel, The Tin Flute, ushered in a new era of realism in Quebec fiction with its compassionate depiction of a working-class family in Montreal’s Saint-Henri district. Her later fiction often turned for its inspiration to the Manitoba of her childhood and her teaching career.

In 1947 Roy married Dr. Marcel Carbotte, and after a few years in France, they settled in Quebec City, which was to remain their home. Roy complemented her fiction with essays, reflective recollections, and three children’s books. Her many honours include three Governor General’s Awards, France’s Prix Fémina, and Quebec’s Prix David.

Gabrielle Roy died in Quebec City, Quebec, in 1983.