Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

Speakeasy

By Alisa Smith

Set in the Pacific Northwest and spanning the years of the Second World War, Speakeasy focuses on Lena Stillman’s connection to Bill Bagley, a notorious criminal. In his heyday, Bill’s risky bank robberies and elaborate ... Read More »

March 27, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Mitzi Bytes

By Kerry Claire

The term “Internet celebrity” means something very different today than it did two decades ago. Before the advent of social media, the designation was reserved for a few brave bloggers who laid their deepest secrets ... Read More »

March 16, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Be My Wolff

By Emma Richler

In her latest novel, Emma Richler comes across as an unapologetic maximalist. If minimalism presupposes that less is more, Richler’s aesthetic in this exuberant, freewheeling work is the precise opposite. At the heart of Be ... Read More »

March 16, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Gold

By David Carpenter

Canadian history is inextricably connected to geography. And Canadian fiction seems endlessly absorbed with a reckoning between the land and the humans who exploit it. Saskatchewan’s David Carpenter has staked out one indelible corner of ... Read More »

March 9, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Dhow House

By Jean McNeil

“Everywhere we go broadcasts a message, a current of meaning,” observes Rebecca Laurelson, the protagonist of Jean McNeil’s tense and atmospheric new novel, The Dhow House. “Here,” she continues, “it has something to do with ... Read More »

March 6, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ Transit

By Rachel Cusk

Canadian-born, U.K.-based Rachel Cusk, author of eight previous novels and three memoirs, has become one of our most astute writers, gaining steady recognition and a couple of literary prizes along the way. Her latest book is ... Read More »

March 1, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Futures

By Anna Pitoniak

Random House editor Anna Pitoniak, born in Whistler but now based in New York, makes a strong literary debut with The Futures, a novel that follows a young couple in their 20s as they take ... Read More »

February 22, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels