Only Pretty Damned

Life behind the scenes at Rowland’s World Class Circus – the setting of Calgary writer Niall Howell’s striking debut novel – is a far cry from the bright lights and laughter of the big top. ... Read More »

February 21, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

The Homecoming

By Andrew Pyper

Family bonds are among the strongest and most enduring in the human experience. Blood relations, certainly – mother, father, siblings – but also those among chosen families that consist of spouses and adopted children or ... Read More »

February 7, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

The Migration

By Helen Marshall

February 7, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club

By Megan Gail Coles

In her debut novel, Newfoundland playwright and author Megan Gail Coles uses a trendy St. John’s restaurant (complete with local celebrity chef) called the Hazel as the connection that binds a cast of depressed, desperate, ... Read More »

February 4, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Swimming with Horses

By Oakland Ross

For 15-year-old Sam Mitchell of the fictional Toronto suburb Kelso, the summer of 1963 is life-changing. That season marks the mysterious arrival of 18-year-old Hilary Anson, a transplant from South Africa who comes to stay ... Read More »

January 10, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Days by Moonlight

By André Alexis

“Days by Moonlight is not a work of realism. It’s not a work that uses the imagination to show the real, but one that uses the real to show the imagination.” So writes André Alexis ... Read More »

January 7, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Seven Days

By Patrick Senécal; Howard Scott and Phyllis Aronoff (trans.)

The name Patrick Senécal may not mean much to English-language readers, but in his home province, the author is a bona fide literary blockbuster. Frequently referred to as Quebec’s Stephen King, Senécal sells in the ... Read More »

December 20, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding

By Jennifer Robson

Months before Meghan Markle, the future Duchess of Sussex, walked down the aisle at St. George’s Chapel, finally revealing her Givenchy wedding gown, British bookies twice halted their betting pools over which couturier had received ... Read More »

December 20, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

The Goddess of Yantai

By Ian Hamilton

When the first Ava Lee novel was published in 2011, it introduced a character who was fresh and atypical: a lesbian Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant and martial arts master who dresses in Brooks Brothers suits and ... Read More »

December 17, 2018 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Fate: The Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung