WWI

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 ones that came out of New Brunswick.

Before I get to highlighting just a few of them, I would like to mention how unhappy I was at the hearing of the passing of Raymond Fraser in 2018. He will leave a definite void in the East Coast writing scene, but he leaves behind a legacy of enjoyable reading and poetry as well.… Continue reading

The Crackie by Gary Collins

Newfoundland’s master storyteller Gary Collins returns with a novel written in his cogent style that blends together fiction and history into a uniquely readable book that anyone would enjoy. That may sound like a marketing line you might read on the back of one of Mr. Collin’s books, but I have read and/or reviewed several of his books and I’ve always found them to be enjoyable, compelling reads.… Continue reading

The Land’s Long Reach by Valerie Mills-Milde

This is the book that I was awaiting from Valerie Mills-Milde. I had to patiently wait two years from the time that her exceptional debut novel After Drowning (2016, Inanna Publications) was released. That book won a 2017 IPPY Silver Medal for Contemporary Fiction. Of After Drowning, I stated: “After Drowning is an intriguing, well-paced and mysteriously captivating story of everyday lives impacted by tragic events and the collateral damage they inflict as well as the long road back to recovery and reconciliation.” In a sense, The Land’s Long Reach is also a captivating story of lives impacted by tragic events (WWI, domestic violence) and the collateral damage inflicted (mental, medical and psychological stress, strained family relationships) on each and every character. … Continue reading

I Remain, Your Loving Son: Intimate Stories of Beaumont-Hamel by Frances Ennis (Editor), Bob Wakeham (Editor)

this book is composed of transcripts of two documentaries, with added poems and photographs, it doesn’t really lend itself to any type of review other than to compliment Flanker Press on doing admirable job of assembling and producing this book. Particularly striking is the full-colour insert “Remembering With Rugs” a collection of hand-hooked rugs commemorating aspects of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and that fateful July 1st, 1916 when the entire regiment was machine-gunned down in minutes.… Continue reading