The River Twice by John Bemrose
John Bemrose draws readers in and won’t let them go until the last page of this astonishingly lyrical and deeply humane novel.
WWI
The Porcelain Moon: A Novel of France, the Great War, and Forbidden Love by Janie Chang
Set against the little-known history of the 140,000 Chinese workers who were brought to Europe as non-combatant labour during WWI, The Porcelain Moon is a tale of forbidden love, identity and belonging, and what we are willing to risk for freedom.
Life Savers and Body Snatchers by Dr. Tim Cook
From Tim Cook, Canada’s top war historian, comes a definitive medical history of the Great War.
In Our Youth by Angus Scully
In Our Youth explores the lives of thirty-two young Canadian military and civilian flyers, viewed through the medium of archival photography.
The Mystery Ships of Nova Scotia in the First World War by John N. Grant
n 1917, a small fleet of six schooners sailed from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland ports as live bait for German U-boats.
Muggins: The Life and Afterlife of a Canadian Canine War Hero by Grant Hayter-Menzies
The unusual and moving tale of Muggins, a famed fundraising dog who became a mascot of the Canadian Red Cross during the First World War.
Amid the Splintered Trees by Heather McBriarty
A sweeping novel of the Canadian experience in the First World War, Amid the Splintered Trees is loosely based on author Heather McBriarty’s own family history.
A Canadian Nurse in the Great War: The Diaries of Ruth Loggie, 1915-1916 Edited by Ross Hebb
A Canadian Nurse in the Great War grants a peek, through the diary of Ruth Loggie, into a little-known moment of our history. It also offers a glimpse into forbidden territory-women at war.
The History of Rain by Stephens Gerard Malone
Literary historical fiction set in a war-torn Europe and glamourous Old Hollywood, following a lonely landscape gardener, from author of Big Town and I Still Have a Suitcase in Berlin.
Connection at Newcombe by Kayt Burgess
Post-World War I, the small town of Newcombe, Ontario, is in danger of dying. Remote and with fewer than 200 inhabitants, its future is spelled out: slow, drawn-out, painful death as a community. A chance meeting between Francis Barrett, an employee of the Canadian National Railway (CNR), and Cal Bannatyne, a major on his way home from the front, leads to an opportunity: getting a railway station to Newcombe, linking it to the rest of Canada, and perhaps keeping it from dying.
Heard Amid the Guns by Jacqueline Larson Carmichael
A rich and varied tapestry of the First World War, highlighting the personal stories of over 150 men and women from across North America who served overseas.
Somewhere in Flanders: Letters from the Front by Heather McBriarty
Heather McBriarty’s novel, Somewhere in Flanders: Letters from the Front, is a remarkable true telling of what is what like in the trenches during the First World War. It is also a poignant love story.
The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
Reading a novel by Lesley Cynthia Crewe is like covering yourself in an old quilt. …
The Daughters’ Story by Murielle Cyr
Nadine is banished to a home for unwed mothers in 1950. She’s 15. Her baby daughter, whose father is shrouded in secrecy, is put up for adoption without her permission. Vowing to reunite one day with her daughter, she cuts all ties with her dysfunctional Irish and French-Canadian Catholic family whose past is cluttered with secrets, betrayals, incest and violence.
Best New Brunswick Reads of 2018
Looking back on all the books I reviewed in 2018, there were plenty of good …