Heather O’Neill’s new novel is a voyage across Montreal, from realms of innocence and districts of longing to zones of cruelty. You might be able to find the story’s orphanage on the city’s northern limits, and know where to locate Westmount mansions and Chinatown opium dens, but the map O’Neill’s characters follow is mostly allegorical. That’s why the many hotels have names like the Darling and the Ravishing, and theatres are called the Ocean, the Velvet and the Neptune.
