Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

Grinder

By Mike Knowles

Grinder is the second novel in a planned Hamilton mob trilogy starring tough guy Wilson, who constantly finds himself caught between divided loyalties, playing all sides against each other. The book is chock full of ... Read More »

December 17, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Lemon

By Cordelia Strube

A relentless fixation on human misery propels Lemon, the eponymous adolescent protagonist of Toronto author Cordelia Strube’s eighth novel. Despite an ending that feels inauthentic, Strube’s humour-laden prose and uncompromising commitment to her narrator’s bleak ... Read More »

December 17, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Migration Songs

By Anna Quon

The title of Anna Quon’s debut novel doesn’t accurately convey its spirit. One might expect a slow, pastoral narrative with lots of nature metaphors, but this is nothing of the sort. Though the novel is ... Read More »

November 30, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Daniel O’Thunder

By Ian Weir

To a certain literary sensibility, the phrase “historical novel” has become shorthand for pretty much everything that is wrong with contemporary “literary” fiction. We’ve come to expect these books to be long-winded, conventional morality tales ... Read More »

November 23, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels