Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

Stay

By Aislinn Hunter

Poet and short story writer Aislinn Hunter’s first novel is about a young Canadian who makes the pilgrimage to Europe to find herself. The plot may sound old-fashioned, but Stay’s rigorous examination of the relationship ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Featherbed

By John L. Miller

“Objects hold meaning,” Rebecca tells her daughter Anna from her deathbed, “an object might reveal a person’s hopes and dreams.” That object, Anna soon discovers, is her mother’s diary dating back to 1909. The revelations ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Hating Gladys

By Leona Gom

It is the summer of 1965, and Gladys Pratt, an embittered, middle-aged woman, is preparing for another swarm of whining tourists to descend upon her isolated Yukon lodge. When one of her sullen staffers tries ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Exile

By Ann Ireland

Carlos Romero Estévez is hastily smuggled out of his country and flown to Vancouver to take up a university appointment as writer-in-exile. It is possible, however, to be a political refugee without being a hero, ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Perpetual Ending

By Kristen den Hartog

As any creative writing teacher knows, serious stories about broken homes are very difficult to carry off, demanding a near-religious abstinence from anything smacking of movie-of-the-week melodramatics. Kristen den Hartog’s unsatisfying follow-up to the well-received ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Please

By Peter Darbyshire

Please, Peter Darbyshire’s debut novel, belongs to a genre of urban slacker/existentialist fiction recently popularized by Jesus’ Son, the critically acclaimed collection of linked stories by American Denis Johnson. The appeal of Johnson’s protagonist lay ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Mercy

By Alissa York

In her debut novel, Alissa York drops her readers into small-town Mercy, Manitoba, in the summer of 1948. Like her award-winning short fiction, Mercy is told in a series of spare vignettes that are rattled ... Read More »

January 7, 2004 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels