Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

Swarm

By Lauren Carter

Set alternately in a city crumbling into cavernous disparity between rich and poor, and on an island characterized by hardscrabble sustenance, Lauren Carter’s debut novel tells the dystopic near-future story of everyperson Sandy Burch-Bailey. The ... Read More »

September 27, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Festival Man

By Geoff Berner

Written as the fictional memoirs of Campbell Ouiniette, a music manager of questionable repute, Geoff Berner’s debut novel is a fun, fast read. A musician by trade, Berner’s career as an international touring artist undoubtedly ... Read More »

September 27, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Infidelity

By Stacey May Fowles

Reviewer, essayist, and novelist (and frequent Q&Q contributor) Stacey May Fowles returns to long-form fiction with this tale of an obsessive affair. Charlie, a clinically anxious poet and academic, feels trapped. His wife is his ... Read More »

September 27, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

A Bird’s Eye

By Cary Fagan

With its brief chapters and empathetic narrative, Cary Fagan’s slim new novel stands out from other coming-of-age stories. Fourteen-year-old Benjamin Kleeman is the son of struggling immigrant parents in 1930s Toronto. His Jewish father is ... Read More »

September 27, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Omens

By Kelley Armstrong

Twenty-four-year-old socialite Olivia Taylor Jones seems to have a perfect life: wealthy parents, a successful fiancé, and financial stability. That’s until she finds out that she was actually adopted into her rich Chicago family, and ... Read More »

September 27, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Delphi Room

By Melia McClure

When Bob Dylan told us, “It’s doom alone that counts,” he might have been anticipating Melia McClure’s tragicomic debut novel. In the first sentence, the narrator, Velvet, hangs herself; all subsequent action is post-mortem. Like ... Read More »

September 27, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Extraordinary

By David Gilmour

“The details don’t matter,” says Sally to the narrator of David Gilmour’s new novel, as she tells him tales from her troubled past on the night she plans to kill herself. The narrator is Sally’s ... Read More »

September 23, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Cataract City

By Craig Davidson

Craig Davidson’s superb storytelling skills, extreme plotlines, and unabashedly masculine take on human conflict have distinguished him from many of his literary contemporaries. He has also proved willing to freely borrow from such diverse genres ... Read More »

September 17, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels