Death on Darby’s Island by Alice Walsh
Death on Darby's Island is a murder-mystery set in the outport community of Darby's Island in the mid-seventies.
family
Dancing with Chairs in the Music House by Caro Soles
Precocious ten-year-old Vanessa Dudley-Morris knows lots of secrets. In 1949 when she and her family are forced to move into two rooms on the second floor of 519 Jarvis Street in Toronto, a genteel but somewhat rundown rooming house owned by a reclusive pianist, she learns a lot more.
A Child to Cry Over by Vanessa C. Hawkins
Maddy Bell was just eight years old when she was sent away for the murder of a two year old boy living in the rural town of St. George, New Brunswick.
Approaching Fire by Michelle Porter
Approaching Fire will surely provide the reader with the opportunity to grasp the struggles of identity that emanate from hundreds of years of racism, and the parallels with seething fires that rip across the lands and destroy tangible keepsakes.
What’s Not Allowed? A Family Journey with Autism by Teresa Hedley
Lauded by autism leaders and practitioners as “relatable, insightful, joyful and inspiring,” What’s Not Allowed? A Family Journey with Autism tells the tale of Erik from womb to emerging adult. Written with compassion, humor and keen observation, we are taken … Continue reading
The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
Reading a novel by Lesley Cynthia Crewe is like covering yourself in an old quilt. You know you can settle in and get cozy, wrap yourself in the words and let the characters and their memories keep you company as … Continue reading
Broken Symmetry by Rosalie Osmond
Broken Symmetry centres on the Wentzell family. The events unfold from 1943 to 1959 and mostly occur in their shared family home in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
Akin by Emma Donoghue
Akin demonstrates yet again that, when it comes to fictional worlds, Emma Donoghue is at home everywhere. The novel is set in New York and Nice, France. Seventy-nine-year-old retired academic Noah—widowed, set in his ways, still living in the same … Continue reading
A Song From Faraway by Deni Ellis Béchard
A “Story-Producing Story”
In James Wood’s essay “Serious Noticing” he makes this keen observation about fictional stories: “…one definition of a story might be that it always produces more of them. A story is story-producing. […] No single story can … Continue reading
Acadian Driftwood: One Family and the Great Expulsion by Tyler LeBlanc
year 2020 marks 265 years since the Acadian Expulsion (Le Grande Dérangement) in 1755. Unfortunately, the outbreak of Covid-19 will likely not allow Acadians to gather together to observe this milestone year. Annually, on August 15th (the actual … Continue reading
Good Mothers Don’t by Laura Best
It’s 1960, and Elizabeth has a good life. A husband who takes care of her, two healthy children, a farm in the Forties Settlement. But Elizabeth is slowly coming apart, her reality splintering. She knows she will harm her children, wants to harm her children, wants to be stopped from harming her children. She doesn’t sleep, becomes incoherent. Elizabeth is taken away.
Tacet by Suzanne Chiasson
Guernica Editions has published Vancouver author and poet Suzanne Chiasson's first novel, Tacet which at under 200 pages flirts with the novella classification, and as such, leaves more questions unanswered than answered. It is the story of Charlotte, a singer (of the cabaret type) and Theo, a twentysomething actor who works in a restaurant to pay the rent to his good friend and roommate Curtis.
Reproduction by Ian Williams
Novels, like love and family, take many forms. On every page of Reproduction, his debut novel, Ian Williams finds ways to resist and defy conventional narrative practice while constructing an audacious and uniquely challenging story that crosses generational lines. In the process, he has written a poignant, resonant tale about intersecting lives and the ways that seemingly trivial decisions can have unexpected and far-reaching consequences.
Things Worth Burying by Matt Mayr
Living in New Brunswick, one is all too aware of the position logging played in its history. Masts and wood for sailing ships, houses, fireplaces and the list goes on. It is a similar story with other heavily forested parts of Canada such as Quebec and Northern Ontario, where Matt Mayr's exceptional sophomore novel Things Worth Burying is set.
The Allspice Bath by Sonia Saikaley
Award-winning author Sonia Saikely's newest novel, The Allspice Bath is an enjoyable, yet emotional story about a Lebanese family living in Ottawa in the 70s-90s.