An essential figure in the shadows of the Quebec literary community, the big boss of Éditions du Boréal for 33 years, Pascal Assathiany, will hand over his position as general manager on 1er december. A transfer that he meticulously prepared, a question of ensuring “the continuity in the change” of one of the oldest generalist houses in Quebec.
“I am convinced that it will continue with the same editorial values and the same conception of publishing, but in a world that has changed. »
Recruited by Antoine Del Busso around 1978, Pascal Assathiany — Georgian by descent, Parisian by birth and Montrealer by adoption — arrived at Boréal when the company founded in 1962 by Denis Vaugeois and Jacques Lacoursière was not yet dedicated than in the historical test. Under the impetus of a small group that he formed among others with Jacques Godbout and François Ricard, the house then opened up to literature, by publishing… a historical novel, The wood duck by Louis Caron, in 1981.
This is how Boréal quietly transformed itself into the generalist house we know today, spearhead of Quebec literature which will publish the Laferrières, Hamelin, Proulx, Chen, Laberge, Archambault and many others, and of which he became the general manager in 1989.
“But we must not forget that all of this is teamwork,” recalls the publisher, who believes that a publishing house is defined as much by the texts it publishes as by those it refuses.
Pascal Assathiany received us earlier this week in the famous premises that Boréal has occupied since the early 1990s, on rue Saint-Denis in Montreal. “There are plenty of ghosts in this office. “Those of Serge Bouchard, François Ricard, Simon Roy, Lori Saint-Martin, Marie-Claire Blais, Jaques Brault, authors associated with the house who have died in recent months. “But it also goes back to Gil Courtemanche, Gaétan Soucy…”, says gently the editor, who experienced each departure with difficulty.
“Especially since most of them were younger than me. I don’t know who said: “We walk surrounded by ghosts.” It’s a bit like that. »
The publisher is therefore inhabited today by an assumed nostalgia, but also by optimism. “Because the little young people want it! “, he says about his successors who will ensure the co-management, Gilles Ostiguy and Renaud Roussel. Both were already part of the box, which led to several other changes.
Transition
Pascal Assathiany decided to retire while he still had “a good start” to prepare for the transition. The important thing was to leave everything in order – both at Boréal and at its partner, the distributor Dimédia – to ensure the transmission of memory by balancing the generations, but without forcing the new generation to “fit into a mould”. An operation as complex as it is delicate.
“It was my biggest file. That’s why it had to be done quietly and not in a hurry. »
Authors have also kindly worried about his health when he announced to them that he was leaving. “No, no, exactly! But I will soon be 77 years old. I have reached the age where one no longer has the right to read Tintin. So I no longer have the right to edit either! »
But what will he do? He smiles. “I will not play mother-in-law. But I will stay on the Boréal and Dimédia board. I will dare to give some advice, and I dare to hope that people will listen to me…”
He will also read books “well edited, that’s always a pleasure” – when you’re a publisher, he recalls, “there’s a lot of reading you do that never sees the light of day”. We will also undoubtedly see its long silhouette in a book fair or a launch. “I am not completely retired, I am in withdrawal. I’m going to be there, I’m going to see people. »
And since he likes nothing more than a good discussion with an author, he will certainly not deprive himself of it.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Pascal Assathiany
A publishing house is a place of exchange, meeting and openness. That’s what I wanted to do at Boréal. A diversified house where there is an internal dialogue.
Pascal Assathiany
While the Montreal Book Fair is in full swing at the Palais des congrès, it is the effervescent memories of the Boréal stand that come to the surface and that he evokes with a smile. “Gil Courtemanche in conversation with Sheila Copps, Bernard Arcand and Serge Bouchard who are there laughing, Chapleau who is unleashed…”
Besides loving books deeply, why does he love authors so much? “In general, they are rather complicated! ” He is laughing.
“And I don’t like simplicity, ease. What is fascinating in this profession as it is practiced is the diversity of the doors that open. It is a permanent formation. »
Independence
One of Pascal Assathiany’s greatest prides as a publisher is to have been able to keep the house independent and to have resisted the call of the big publishing groups.
I walk around the big fairs, and it’s amazing how much the industry has become financialized. Me, what I like is to publish a text that nobody expects, to see it circulating then that people are moved by it. It’s extraordinary. Del Busso said this sentence: “We are a bit like farmers. Sometimes we harvest years later.”
Pascal Assathiany
A sign that times are changing, another page will turn in the spring of 2023, when Boréal will move its offices to the Saint-Henri district. We are worried: what will happen to the “historic room” where the editorial committee met to evaluate the manuscripts, and whose libraries are stocked with a copy of each book that has been published at Le Boréal?
“There will be another story that will be written. »