Daniel Soha, Writer
“What have I kept from Hungary, from that first language of mine whose sounds, whether I hear them or gargle them in my throat, still plunge me into a feeling of warmth and affection, intimacy and protection? What have I retained from all those chants, from that permanent nostalgia of the travelling people who gave me life? An atmosphere maybe, the near-illusory memory of a history I never knew, a tenuous thread still connecting me to a world that no longer exists, a tiny spark of myself dating back to the dawn of time, too weak to ever flare up, too strong to ever go out.
I have learned to own that smouldering, bridge that gap, love my unique solitude and make it my pride. So ultimately, what I have best kept from Hungary is probably its gypsy side, at once wild, melodious and sentimental, which registers outside the conventions of the mainstream, that irrepressible urge to harmonize my cycles of laughter and tears with a different language – more powerful, more vibrant perhaps, and sometimes also frozen in a rather outdated romanticism, infused with the grandiose blast of the violins and the crystalline cascades of the cimbalom which molded my grandfather’s youth, before the Great War.”
Born in Aix-en-Provence (France) of Hungarian-speaking parents, Daniel Soha lived and studied in France until his mid-20s. He is the holder of a Master’s degree in Anglo-American studies and a Masters of Education from the University of Aix-Marseille. As part of his studies, he spent a year in the North of England, where he developed a love of English culture and dialects.
After graduating with a double Master’s degree, what he likes to call “a series of fortunate events” caused him to embark on an international career as a diplomat, a director of cultural organizations and a translator, and he worked successively for the Alliance Française, the French government, the Toronto French School, the French Library and Cultural Center (Boston), the United Nations, and Morningstar – a leading financial research company. Over a 20-year span, he lived in New York, Paris, Singapore, Boston and Toronto. He recently moved to London, Ontario, for family reasons. He is both a citizen of France and of Canada.
Apart from numerous articles, editorials, book reviews, and even cooking recipes and a comic strip, his most notable writings include five novels, two books of short stories, one book of editorial pieces, and the French translations of two poetry books by Oakville poet Thomas Scott.
He is a two-time finalist of the Trillium Book Award, for his novels La Maison (2009) and Le Manuscrit (2012). He also won on two occasions the Christine-Dumitriu-Van-Saanen Prize, awarded by the French Book Fair in Toronto, for his novels L’Orchidiable (2009) and Chroniques Tziganes II (2018).
In 2015, he was selected to be one of the participants of the landmark literary project Les 24 Heures du Roman, where 24 renowned francophone authors got together on a 24-hour train ride from Moncton to Toronto and wrote 24 chapters of a novel (published under the name “Sur les Traces de Champlain”) to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s discovery of Lower Canada.
Vignettes, a collection of short stories, is his first book written in the English language.
The Books
In French:
Chroniques tziganes (Novel – Éditions du GREF, Toronto, 2004)
Amour à mort (Novel – GREF, Toronto, 2005)
Du Cœur au Ventre (a collection of articles and other editorial pieces – GREF, Toronto, 2007)
La Maison (Novel – GREF, Toronto, 2009) – Finalist: Trillium Book Award
L’Orchidiable (Novel – GREF, Toronto, 2009) – Winner: CDVS Prize
Le Manuscrit (Novel – GREF, Toronto 2012) – Finalist: Trillium Book Award
Chroniques tziganes II (Novel – GREF, Toronto, 2018) – Winner: CDVS Prize
In English:
Vignettes (Short stories – Mosaic Press, Oakville, 2023)
Translations:
User’s Guide to a Blank Wall/Mode d’emploi pour un mur vide (Translations of poems by Thomas Scott – GREF, Toronto, 2006).
Winner : Discovery Night at the Toronto Art Bar
How Things Got Like This/Commment on en est arrivé là (Translations of poems by Thomas Scott – GREF, Toronto, 2010)