love – The Miramichi Reader

You are Eating an Orange. You are Naked. by Sheung-King

January 7, 2021January 6, 2021 by Sonia Saikaley

Love can be beautiful and disastrous at the same time. In Sheung-King’s debut novel You are Eating an Orange. You are Naked., he brilliantly evokes the complexities of an intense romantic relationship with the use of lyrical language and folk tales that draw the reader in.

Boy With a Problem by Chris Benjamin

November 23, 2020 by Gemma Marr

How does a teenager deal with grief? Where do you turn in the aftermath of tragedy? What can ease the shame of a dark secret? Who can help when things feel helpless? In sparse but emotive prose, Chris Benjamin’s collection … Continue reading

Hearts Amok by Kevin Spenst

August 13, 2020 by Bill Arnott

In language that twists together hobo slang and flights of troubadourish diction, Hearts Amok scrutinizes the history of the love sonnet in Surrey, England and simultaneously celebrates the tickings and tollings of one love-struck heart in Surrey, British Columbia. Examining … Continue reading

Crocuses Hatch From Snow by Jaime Burnet

June 22, 2020 by Ian Colford

Jaime Burnet’s novel tells an urgent, socially relevant story firmly rooted in time and place. Crocuses Hatch From Snow is first and foremost a novel of Halifax, Nova Scotia, one that addresses the good, the bad and the ugly from … Continue reading

Waiting for the Small Ship of Desire by Allan Cooper

March 13, 2021June 2, 2020 by James M. Fisher

I don’t often read poetry, but when I do, I like it to be moderately straightforward and logical, able to reach my heart and stir emotions, buried deep as they are. The poems in Allan Cooper’s latest collection, Waiting for … Continue reading

The Place of Us by Karen Draper

April 24, 2020April 21, 2020 by Bill Arnott

Karen Draper and her husband are ecstatic to welcome Preston, their first child, into their lives. Joyful anticipation turns to fear when they are told they must prepare to lose him.

We’ve all lost someone. It hurts. Horribly. Most often … Continue reading

Tacet by Suzanne Chiasson

February 2, 2020February 2, 2020 by James M. Fisher

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

February 7, 2021February 1, 2020 by Ian Colford

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.

The Forbidden Dreams of Betsy Elliot by Carolyn R. Parsons

July 17, 2019 by James M. Fisher

The Forbidden Dreams of Betsy Elliot is Carolyn R. Parson’s debut novel for Newfoundland and Labrador’s Flanker Press, and she joins such authors as Ida Linehan Young and Gary Collins as storytellers of the first rank. It is set in … Continue reading

Prague by Maude Veilleux, Translated by Aleisha Jensen and Aimee Wall

March 22, 2019March 4, 2019 by James M. Fisher

An unnamed narrator, a woman who has been published as a poet and is presently writing her first novel, tells us her story in little swatches of prose.

The Philistine by Leila Marshy

March 7, 2019November 9, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Nadia Eid doesn't know it yet, but she's about to change her life. It's the end of the '80s and she hasn't seen her Palestinian father since he left Montreal years ago to take a job in Egypt, promising to bring her with him. But now she's twenty-five and he's missing in action, so she takes matters into her own hands.

The Deserters by Pamela Molloy

June 7, 2018May 24, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Brunswick-born Pamela Molloy’s The Deserters (2018 Véhicule Press) is just about as perfect a story as you can get in under 200 pages. Practically a novella, The Deserters is about Eugenie a woman who inherits her grandmother’s derelict farm in … Continue reading

The Honey Farm by Harriet Alida Lye

July 5, 2018January 28, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Alida Lye is a writer from Richmond Hill, Ontario. Now living in Toronto, she works at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The Honey Farm is her first novel. (Note: this review is based on an Advance Reading Copy supplied by … Continue reading

The Effect of Frost on Southern Vines (Stories) by Sandra Bunting

August 29, 2019December 28, 2016 by James M. Fisher

Miramichi’s unofficial poet laureate Sandra Bunting, has just released her first collection of short stories entitled The Effect of Frost on Southern Vines (2016, Gaelog Press). Having lived abroad for many years, Ms Bunting returned to Miramichi in 2011. The … Continue reading

Limerence by Jon Tattrie

January 9, 2021September 25, 2015 by James M. Fisher

Can a man have it all? The warmth of a solid family and the challenges of a fruitful career?These questions lie at the heart of Limerence, a fun novel exploring the lives of two people seeking very different ways to be men.