Operation Rimbaud

It’s 1967 and Michel Larochelle — a Jesuit, an agnostic, and a spy — meets with Hailé Selassie — Emperor of Ethiopia, King of Kings, Lion of Judah — in a suite at Montreal’s Windsor Hotel. Larochelle has been asked to perform a mission dubbed “Operation Rimbaud.” He expects his latest job to be unusual, but learns that what he’s asked to do is closer to astonishing. The Emperor claims that within his kingdom are artifacts of incredible power and significance: the Tablets of the Law, the pair of stone carvings bearing the Ten Commandments, the actual word of God. Selassie wants Larochelle to steal them.

Thus follows a journey into a land on the brink of revolution and set against the worldwide cultural upheaval of the 1960s, challenging the very system embodied by the tablets. Caught in the turmoil, Larochelle’s greatest challenge lies not in the forces intent on claiming the tablets for themselves, but in reconciling the actions he takes and the passions he indulges, while serving a Church and a God he no longer believes in.

Jacques Godbout was born in Montreal and obtained an MA from the University of Montreal. He is an author who has written numerous fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children's books. He joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1958 and is also an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and scriptwriter. Patricia Claxton was the first president of the Literary Translators' Association of Canada. She has received two Governor General's Awards for Translation, the first in 1987, for her translation of Gabrielle Roy's Enchantment and Sorrow, and the second in 1999, for her translation of Francois Ricard's biography of Roy.

Jacques Godbout was born in Montreal and obtained an MA from the University of Montreal. He is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and scriptwriter, and the author of numerous fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children’s books. His novel Salut Galarneau! won the 1967 Governor General’s Award for Fiction. He joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1958. Patricia Claxton was the first president of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada. She has received two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Translation, the first in 1987 for her translation of Gabrielle Roy’s Enchantment and Sorrow?, and the second in 1999 for her translation of François Ricard’s biography of Roy.