Quill and Quire

Reviews

Dark All Day

By Darryl Joel Berger

So-called “realistic” fiction often fails to capture exactly how bent, how strange the business of living is. The quest for realism often belies the odd, the ugly, and the liminal, facts and dialogue substituted for ... Read More »

September 27, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

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

★ The Orenda

By Joseph Boyden

Now that The Orenda has arrived, it’s hard not to think of Joseph Boyden’s first two novels (Three Day Road and its Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning follow-up, Through Black Spruce) as preludes to this magnificent literary ... Read More »

September 6, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

MaddAddam

By Margaret Atwood

With MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood’s imposing speculative-fiction trilogy – spanning a decade that has seen at least a few of her predictions from Oryx & Crake and The Year of the Flood prove eerily prescient – ... Read More »

August 27, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Oh, My Darling

By Shaena Lambert

Shaena Lambert’s second collection of short stories continues to exhibit the narrative prowess of her previous collection, 2002’s The Falling Woman, and her novel, Radiance. With a subtle but consuming strength, the 10 stories in ... Read More »

August 26, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Short