Quill and Quire

Reviews

Going Ashore

By Mavis Gallant

Any new book by Mavis Gallant is an event, and Going Ashore is an interesting and unusual one, full of surprises as well as confirmations. Gallant has written a great many more pieces of fiction ... Read More »

July 3, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

The Best of Men

By Claire Letemendia

Warmongering royalty, an army plundering its own people, and morality measures pushing the brothels of London to bankruptcy: there was much to talk about in England circa 1642. And the characters in Claire Letemendia’s debut ... Read More »

July 2, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Cecilian Vespers

By Anne Emery

After the tumultuous personal upheaval that Halifax lawyer and bluesman Monty Collins underwent in Barrington Street Blues, this fourth volume in Anne Emery’s mystery series gives him welcome respite on the family front. This time, ... Read More »

July 2, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Automatic World

By Struan Sinclair

Winnipeg-based author Struan Sinclair’s daring and accomplished debut novel is that rare type of book that sets out to be deliberately difficult. Take the book’s puzzle-like structure, which comprises four disparate narratives nested inside one ... Read More »

July 2, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Incident Report

By Martha Baillie

As its title suggests, Martha Baillie’s fourth novel consists of a series of “incident reports” written by Miriam Gordon, a 35-year-old employee of the Toronto Public Library. Miriam is a “Public Service Assistant” at Allan ... Read More »

July 2, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Perfecting

By Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

Toronto writer Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s second novel pivots on the character of Curtis Woolf, who flees his New Mexico home for Ontario, where he establishes up a religious commune known as the Family. Years later, Curtis’s ... Read More »

July 2, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels