Three Years with the Rat

Jay Hosking has an interesting CV for a novelist, with both a PhD in neuroscience and an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. Given this hybrid background it’s perhaps not surprising ... Read More »

August 8, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Waiting for the Cyclone

By Leesa Dean

According to the publisher’s copy accompanying Leesa Dean’s debut story collection, “women [in fiction] are too often cast as inherently good.” It goes on to caution that the “perfectly imperfect” women within these pages “don’t ... Read More »

August 2, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

Trudeaumania: The Rise to Power of Pierre Elliott Trudeau

By Robert Wright

Screaming girls, flashing lights, and a dazzling smile. These are the images that come to mind when reminiscing about Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s rise to power, popularly known as Trudeaumania. This, however, is the antithesis of ... Read More »

August 2, 2016 | Filed under: Politics & Current Affairs

★ The Parcel

By Anosh Irani

As engrossing as any thriller, Anosh Irani’s fourth novel offers readers so much more. An aggregate of storytelling accomplishments, The Parcel captivates with its vividly rendered characters and commands the reader’s attention by way of ... Read More »

July 28, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction

By Dominik Parisien (ed.)

Anthologies of themed short stories carry a significant risk: if the theme is too rigid or overpowering, the stories themselves may be hampered or crippled. Conversely, if the theme is too loose, any sense of ... Read More »

July 25, 2016 | Filed under: Anthologies

New Albion

By Dwayne Brenna

As aficionados of the theatre know, the Victorian age was arguably one of the bleakest eras for the art form, complete with grubby dressing rooms, dingy performance halls, pathetic wages, unappreciative audiences, and stale, torrid ... Read More »

July 25, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love and International Intrigue on the Eve of the Second World War

By Taras Grescoe

Any impression of the smart set’s antics between the 20th century’s two cataclysmic wars instantly conjures the cabarets of Weimar Berlin or the nightclubs and brasseries of 1930s Paris. A more distant but no less ... Read More »

July 25, 2016 | Filed under: History

Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts

By Lucas K. Law (ed.); Susan Forest (ed.)

July 25, 2016 | Filed under: Anthologies

Congratulations on Everything

By Nathan Whitlock

The next time you find yourself in a bar, consider buying a drink for the owner, because it’s likely he or she needs it more than you. At least, that’s what writer and Q&Q contributing ... Read More »

July 18, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Life in the Court of Matane

By Eric Dupont; Peter McCambridge (trans.)

All Quebecers, it seemed, turned on their televisions during the summer of 1976, when the elfin Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci competed at the Montreal Olympics. The fascination was not just in her perfect 10-point performances. ... Read More »