The publication of this novel, Godbout's first, was seen as a watershed event in French-Canadian literary history: The Aquarium broke out of the mold of the literary traditionalism and realism that had been dominant until then, and it is generally hailed as having inaugurated the nouveau roman in Québec. The action is set in an unnamed third-world country on the brink of independence, and the plot centers around a group of tense expatriates residing in the Casa Occidentale.
