The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant

''The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant'' (originally published in French as ''La grosse femme d'à côté est enceinte'', and translated into English by

Sheila Fischman Sheila Leah Fischman (born 1 December 1937) is a Canadian translator who specializes in the translation of works of contemporary Quebec literature from French to English. Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, she was brought up in Ontario. She hold ...

in 1981) is a 1978

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

by Canadian author

Michel Tremblay Michel Tremblay (born 25 June 1942) is a French-Canadian novelist and playwright. Tremblay was born in Montreal, Quebec, where he grew up in the French-speaking neighbourhood of Plateau Mont-Royal; at the time of his birth, a neighbourhood wit ...

. The story takes place over the course of a single day, May 2, 1942, in the

Plateau Mont-Royal Le Plateau-Mont-Royal () is a borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Plateau-Mont-Royal takes its name from its location on a plateau, on the eastern side of Mont-Royal and overlooking downtown Montreal, across ...

neighbourhood of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. It focuses on several working-class families as well as two prostitutes. It is known across the

francophonie Francophonie is the quality of speaking French. The term designates the ensemble of people, organisations and governments that share the use of French on a daily basis and as administrative language, teaching language or chosen language. The ...

as one of the great Canadian pieces of French language literature, utilizing the unique Canadian dialect of French to express the issues of the early and mid-twentieth century in Québec and abroad. The work has strong feminist themes which tie into a pattern in Tremblay's work of focusing on the struggle of the every day woman. 1978 Canadian novels Canadian French-language novels Fiction set in 1942 Novels set in Montreal Works by Michel Tremblay {{Canada-novel-stub