Independence

Cecil Foster was 12 years old in 1966 when Barbados gained independence from Britain. Foster’s first novel in almost a dozen years delves into the formative period of the newly liberated nation, as seen through ... Read More »

February 10, 2014 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Helium

By Jaspreet Singh

Helium is a haunted novel. Virtually every page in this masterful tale by Toronto’s Jaspreet Singh (Chef) features a visitation from the dead or a trip to an otherworldly past. Literary figures as far apart ... Read More »

February 5, 2014 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Bear

By Claire Cameron

With the publication of such Modernist works as The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner honed a stream-of-consciousness technique that immersed readers in the thoughts and experiences of characters too ... Read More »

February 4, 2014 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

All the Broken Things

By Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer prefaces her third novel by noting that some of its more putatively dubious plot points are in fact true. Namely, until the late 1970s, Ontario had a bear-wrestling circuit, the Canadian National Exhibition ... Read More »

January 28, 2014 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Eye of the Day

By Dennison Smith

The world young Aubrey Brown inhabits in B.C. writer Dennison Smith’s accomplished second novel is one of privilege and leisure. As a member of the affluent and influential New England Shaw-Browns, Aubrey spends his summers ... Read More »

January 21, 2014 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Serafim and Claire

By Mark Lavorato

Montreal writer Mark Lavorato delivers an engaging third novel that does a lovely job infusing history into fiction. Set mostly in 1920s Montreal, Serafim and Claire is loaded with local colour and detail. The historical ... Read More »

January 7, 2014 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Desperates

By Greg Kearney

ReLit Award–winning author Greg Kearney wants to shock you with his debut novel. He wants to shock you with its frank depictions of gay sex. He wants to shock you with its nihilistic undercurrents and ... Read More »

December 16, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Road Ends

By Mary Lawson

Like many Canadian writers, Mary Lawson casts her glance backward, telling historical stories of rural life that dwell almost as much on snowy landscapes as the complex characters who inhabit them. There is great tragedy ... Read More »

November 25, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Dollybird

By Anne Lazurko

Set in and around Moose Jaw and Ibsen, Saskatchewan, in 1906, Dollybird tells the story of a 20-year-old Newfoundlander named Moira Burns who is banished by her mother when she becomes pregnant out of wedlock. ... Read More »

November 13, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Fallsy Downsies

By Stephanie Domet

Cantankerous folk musician Lansing Meadows is on the final cross-country tour of his career, which will be capped off by a lifetime achievement award he views as his dismissal from the spotlight. He is accompanied ... Read More »