Museum of Bone and Water

By Nicole Brossard, Erin Mouré and Robert Mazjels, trans.

Although not strictly in the tradition of the language poets of the 1970s, Quebecoise poet Nicole Brossard’s work has always been marked by serious language play and Museum of Bone and Water, in an exquisite ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Poetry

The Wisdom of Water

By Karen Hood-Caddy

The setting in The Wisdom of Water isn’t Walkerton, Ontario, site of one of the country’s worst environmental disasters, but it’s eerily similar: tainted water from an outdated treatment plant, malfunctioning equipment, and an irresponsible ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Crooked Smile: One Family’s Journey Toward Healing

By Lainie Cohen

In Crooked Smile, the lives of an upper-middle class Toronto family are shattered when the middle of three children is in a car accident while driving home from the cottage with a teen buddy in ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography

A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books

By Deirdre Baker and Ken Setterington

There are abundant British and American guides to children’s books, but it’s extremely rare to find Canadian titles in their pages. If for no other reason than national pride, we needed McClelland & Stewart’s A ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Reference

Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History

By Penny LeCouteur and Jay Burreson

The story goes that during Napoleon’s Russian campaign tin buttons on the French soldiers’ uniforms disintegrated in the cold. The soldiers were too busy holding up their pants to fight. This is history from an ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: History

★ Question & Answer

By Alison Pick

What is the answer?” No answer came. She laughed and said, “In that case what is the question?” (Gertrude Stein) In her debut poetry collection, Question & Answer, Alison Pick takes up Gertrude Stein’s challenge, ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Poetry

Promiscuous Unbound

By Bex Brian

For a novel that seems to promise sensual candour if not outright licentiousness, the only truly shocking thing about Promiscuous Unbound, Bex Brian’s debut novel, is just how modest it turns out to be. Although ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Heart Is an Involuntary Muscle

By Monique Proulx, Fred A. Reed and David Homel, trans.

Best-selling Quebec novelist Monique Proulx doesn’t have her own web site, but she leaps daringly into cyberspace in her latest novel. While designing web sites for a rag-tag mob of artists, writers, clowns, and other ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

From the Far Side of the River: Chest-deep in Little Fish and Big Ideas

By Paul Quarrington

Paul Quarrington is at it again with the fish. From the author of Whale Music and Fishing with My Old Guy comes From the Far Side of the River, a collection of essays, reflections, and ... Read More »

November 25, 2003 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography