Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

The Minted

By Will McClelland

With his debut novel, author Will McClelland gleefully embraces a swath of clichés about both CanLit and Canadian identity, and turns them – resoundingly and to tremendous effect – on their heads. The Minted, after ... Read More »

October 26, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Into the Current

By Jared Young

Framing a character’s life in such a way that there is a worthy purpose for telling their story, while also avoiding the monotony of cliché, is a meticulous undertaking. In his debut novel, Ottawa writer ... Read More »

October 17, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Don’t I Know You?

By Marni Jackson

While the pop-culture imprint of the music video for Kanye West’s “Famous” was less indelible than its creator expected, the clip’s basic thesis holds up: “Celebrities – they’re just like us!” The floating, Lost Highway–like ... Read More »

October 11, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Belief

By Mayank Bhatt

Novelist Mayank Bhatt, who immigrated to Canada from Mumbai in 2008, delivers a taut, timely debut focused on one immigrant family and the devastating experience that threatens to destroy the life they have struggled to ... Read More »

October 5, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ After James

By Michael Helm

Michael Helm has spent his career probing the relationship between the intellectual and the physical. He tackled the subject in his first two novels, The Projectionist and In the Place of Last Things, by exploring ... Read More »

October 3, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Into the Sun

By Deni Ellis Béchard

They can be found in every contemporary war zone – daredevil journalists, amoral mercenaries, and assorted foreign do-gooders. Some go seeking adventure, some are addicted to warfare, and others are plagued by liberal guilt over ... Read More »

September 29, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The Break

By Katherena Vermette

Katherena Vermette’s first book, North End Love Songs, a poetry collection set among Winnipeg’s Métis community, won a 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award. In her debut novel, the author finds herself in familiar and heart-wrenching ... Read More »

September 21, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels