★ Vlad: The Last Confession

Somewhere between history and fiction lies truth. In Vlad: The Last Confession, author and actor C.C. Humphreys seeks to tell us one possible truth about Vlad Dracula, the historical figure who has inspired legends and ... Read More »

November 17, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Fear of Fighting

By Stacey May Fowles; Marlena Zuber, illus.

Fear of Fighting, Stacey May Fowles’ second novel, is as gut-wrenching as it is delightful. Fowles navigates the devastating terrain of a broken heart with grace, humour, and wit. The novel’s protagonist, a diffident Torontonian ... Read More »

November 7, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Distantly Related to Freud

By Ann Charney

Ann Charney’s third novel begins in Montreal in 1952. Eight-year-old Ellen gazes through her bedroom window, awaiting the arrival of the refugees who will inhabit the empty rooms of her mother’s grandiose Mount Royal home. ... Read More »

November 4, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Atmospheric Disturbances

By Rivka Galchen

Toronto-born, New York-raised author Rivka Galchen’s first novel is a clever, stylish debut that wears its postmodern conventions on its sleeve. The narrator is Dr. Leo Liebenstein, a psychiatrist suffering from his own paranoid delusion. ... Read More »

November 4, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

A Hummingbird Dance

By Garry Ryan

On the first anniversary of the murder of First Nations teen Alex Starchild, a cowboy’s horse returns home to its ranch without its rider. It doesn’t take detectives Lane and Harper long to connect the ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels

Claudia

By Britt Holmstrom

For a novel that begins with a grisly stabbing and features three other murders, Britt Holmström’s Claudia is surprisingly upbeat. Indeed, the cactus flower on the cover is a fitting symbol of the book’s central ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels

Red Dog, Red Dog

By Patrick Lane

Welcome to the 2008 version of the Important Canadian Novel. Like the 2007 version – Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero – Red Dog, Red Dog announces itself with a flurry of portentous poetic language, often dealing with ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction, Fiction: Novels

The Show That Smells

By Derek McCormack

Derek McCormack has some curiously compulsive creative habits. The Toronto author’s previous novel, The Haunted Hillbilly, was a cowboy story with vampires, one that subversively re-imagined the demise of crooner Hank Williams at the hands ... Read More »

October 24, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Great Karoo

By Fred Stenson

Like the South African plains of the title, Alberta author Fred Stenson’s eighth novel is vast and sprawling. It’s historical fiction with the emphasis firmly on the historical. For nearly 500 pages, The Great ... Read More »

October 21, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Crucified

By Michael Slade

I guess it’s time to admit defeat: apparently “Have you tried Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum?” is not a good enough suggestion for bookstore customers looking for “something like The Da Vinci Code.” Thankfully, two new ... Read More »

September 29, 2008 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

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