Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

The Plague

By Kevin Chong

A fatal epidemic reminiscent of the bubonic plague forces a bustling metropolis into quarantine. Citizens oscillate between panic and indifference, cautiousness and carelessness, filling their indefinite hiatus from real life with distracting trips to the ... Read More »

May 17, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Motherhood

By Sheila Heti

Halfway through her latest novel, Sheila Heti asks, “Should I? Should I? Should I choose it? Should I? But the real question is, could you?” Heti is familiar with asking questions. Her novel How Should ... Read More »

May 10, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Theory of Bastards

By Audrey Schulman

Described by its publisher as a literary novel that is not quite dystopian, Audrey Schulman’s Theory of Bastards offers readers an interesting premise with potential that is never fully realized. The novel follows scientist Francine ... Read More »

April 23, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Honey Farm

By Harriet Alida Lye

Harriet Alida Lye’s debut novel begins with a swarm of bees. More specifically, it begins with a one-word command: “Listen.” This is appropriate, because over the course of The Honey Farm’s propulsive, occasionally frustrating narrative, ... Read More »

April 23, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Where’s Bob?

By Ann Ireland

Ann Ireland’s fifth novel might just confirm some Trump supporters’ worst suspicions about Mexicans: reading this novel, it would appear that they’re all thieves, drug dealers, and murderers living and operating in a land of ... Read More »

April 23, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Marry, Bang, Kill

By Andrew Battershill

Andrew Battershill’s surrealist, genre-bending debut crime novel, 2015’s Pillow, was longlisted for the Sunburst Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Three years later, Battershill returns with another offbeat thriller set in Victoria and on B.C.’s ... Read More »

March 26, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Deep River Night

By Patrick Lane

Dread hangs like a shroud over Patrick Lane’s Deep River Night. The acclaimed Canadian poet’s second novel is set in and around a sprawling lumber facility in B.C. circa 1960. It’s a space where violence ... Read More »

March 22, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Cobra Clutch

By A.J. Devlin

If professional wrestling is over the top, it’s not a stretch to assume that a novel set on the fringes of a western Canadian wrestling circuit would be, too. In that respect, A.J. Devlin’s debut ... Read More »

March 15, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels