Reviews

★ Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places

In a disturbing case of the cure possibly proving as deadly as the disease, Christopher Pollon’s Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places provides an eloquent, clear-eyed warning that, absent a radical ... Read More »

October 11, 2023 | Filed under: Indigenous Peoples, Politics & Current Affairs, Reviews, Science, Technology & Environment

★ The Adversary

By Michael Crummey

On the acknowledgements page of his gobsmackingly accomplished book The Adversary, Michael Crummey (author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize–shortlisted The Innocents) touches on the “looting and pilfering” that went into the writing of his sixth novel. ... Read More »

October 4, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Instead: Navigating the Adventures of a Childfree Life

By Maria Coffey

While in her twenties, Maria Coffey endures not one but two life-changing events: a near-drowning in Morocco, and the tragic disappearance of her then-boyfriend, British mountaineer Joe Tasker, on the Northeast Ridge of Everest. Hoping ... Read More »

October 4, 2023 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews, Travel

★ Tales for Late Night Bonfires

By G.A. Grisenthwaite

Tales for Late Night Bonfires is the long-awaited second work of fiction from Nłeʔkepmx writer G.A. Grisenthwaite. In 12 stories (some previously published), Grisenthwaite returns with the distinctive voice that characterized his debut, Home Waltz, ... Read More »

September 27, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Short, Reviews

★ Roaming

By Mariko Tamaki; Jillian Tamaki

Roaming, the latest graphic novel from cousins Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, explores friendship, sex, and identity in an energetic romp through New York City rendered with sharp dialogue and in mesmerizing tableaus of soft ... Read More »

September 20, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Graphica, Reviews

The Economy of Sparrows

By Trevor Herriot

Given the sudden and vehement uptick in climate-change disasters across the globe, we likely can expect novels with a focus on environmental issues to pop up with ever-increasing frequency. Two recent entries into the eco-fiction ... Read More »

September 20, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

When My Ghost Sings: A Memoir of Stroke, Recovery, and Transformation

By Tara Sidhoo Fraser

If such a thing as a typical amnesia memoir exists, it’s fair to say that Tara Sidhoo Fraser’s debut, When My Ghost Sings: A Memoir of Stroke, Recovery, and Transformation, is not it, though “amnesia ... Read More »

September 13, 2023 | Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Reviews

Reuniting with Strangers

By Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio

Reuniting With Strangers is a novel about motion. After years of waiting – either in Canada or the Philippines – every character in Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio’s debut work of fiction finds themselves reuniting with a family ... Read More »

September 13, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Semi-Detached

By Elizabeth Ruth

When Laura Keys, the contemporary protagonist of Elizabeth Ruth’s Semi-Detached, first enters the house at Two Condor Avenue on an icy winter day in Toronto in 2013, she feels as if she has “stepped into ... Read More »

September 6, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Do You Remember Being Born?

By Sean Michaels

“So what happens when you don’t need a human being to write anything anymore? When you can just turn to your magic smartbox and say, ‘Write me a novel about ornithologists and spies?’” This question, ... Read More »