In Les Chambres de bois, Anne Hébert tells a simple story with few characters, little action, an uncomplicated plot….

Anne Hébert's language is sparse and precise, dépouillé. Time and space are anonymous, and are, in fact, internalized; the real time and space of the novel exist within the characters, within their dreams, within the confined world created by Michel and Lia in their chambres de bois. The tone of this novel, its symbolic language, its deceptive simplicity, its timeless, spaceless quality, its paradoxical concrete abstractness are reminiscent of a fable. It is a story of a journey through death and stagnation into life, of the affirmation of life, and of the struggle of life against the forces of darkness, death and evil. The movement experienced in this novel and reflected symbolically through language, theme and image is the repetition of a pattern developed within individual...