★ Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian)

The debut novel from Hazel Jane Plante is not easily categorizable. Little Blue Encyclopedia (for Vivian) is an unapologetically original amalgamation of many disparate elements: a rough draft of an encyclopedia cataloguing a fictional television ... Read More »

December 2, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Blue Bear Woman

By Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau; Susan Ouriou and Christelle Morelli (trans.)

There is a sense of calm as Victoria, a middle-aged, mixed-race Cree woman, sets off on a road trip to James Bay with her settler husband, Daniel. It is a calm derived from satiety and ... Read More »

November 25, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

The Desirable Sister

By Taslim Burkowicz

What happens when sibling rivalry is based on the colour of one’s skin? This is the premise of Surrey, B.C., author Taslim Burkowicz’s second novel, a story of two sisters, Gia and Serena Pirji, whose ... Read More »

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

Exile Blues

By Douglas Gary Freeman

Douglas Gary Freeman’s Exile Blues incorporates historical events and settings to create an engaging and multi-faceted narrative of survival and strength. We travel with the main character, Preston “Prez” Downs Jr., through his childhood to ... Read More »

October 31, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

The Red Chesterfield

By Wayne Arthurson

An abandoned sofa and a grisly find set the action in motion in the latest work from Edmonton author Wayne Arthurson. In a sharp deconstruction of the conventions of the mystery genre, Arthurson uses prose ... Read More »

October 31, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Against the Wind

By Jim Tilley

Imagine the comedic possibilities if Oscar Wilde had penned a play about a foursome involving two women both romantically involved with the same two men. Such a play would have been a laugh a minute. ... Read More »

October 28, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Lampedusa

By Steven Price

Steven Price's Lampedusa, a fictional account of how Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa came to write the classic novel The Leopard, doesn't deal in shocking revelations or major plot twists. In fact, anyone familiar with Tomasi's ... Read More »

October 21, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Chasing Painted Horses

By Drew Hayden Taylor

Prolific and award-winning Ojibway writer and playwright Drew Hayden Taylor returns with a new novel, his first full-length work of prose fiction for adults since 2010’s Motorcycles and Sweetgrass. One cold morning, a Toronto police ... Read More »

October 17, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Paper Houses

By Dominique Fortier; Rhonda Mullins (trans.)

The French language makes no distinction between the words for house and home – an inadequacy according to Governor General’s Literary Award–winning writer Dominique Fortier, whose sixth novel, Paper Houses, traces a fictionalized version of ... Read More »

October 17, 2019 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Island

By Johanna Skibsrud

In her 2001 memoir, A Map to the Door of No Return, Dionne Brand recalls that her grandfather told her “he knew what people we came from.” Despite the 13-year-old Brand’s prodding, which included rhyming ... Read More »

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

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