Quill and Quire

Fiction: Novels

The Crooked Maid

By Dan Vyleta

“When I set out to write The Crooked Maid,” says Dan Vyleta in the acknowledgements to his 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize–nominated novel, “I had contracted the Balzacian bug.” Vyleta’s reference is appropriate, since the 19th-century ... Read More »

November 5, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

The n-Body Problem

By Tony Burgess

The title of Tony Burgess’s new novel refers to a question in classical mechanics: is it possible to predict the individual movements of a group of celestial objects that interact with one another gravitationally? Isaac ... Read More »

October 28, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Bait

By J. Kent Messum

Some novels cry out to be filmed. Bait, the debut from musician-turned-wordsmith J. Kent Messum, simply roars. That’s not a knock against Messum’s stylistic approach. The B-movie premise and far-fetched plot don’t detract from one’s ... Read More »

October 22, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Watch How We Walk

By Jennifer LoveGrove

At some point, every kid who had Jehovah’s Witness classmates must have wondered what happened when their secretive peers skipped the after-school extracurriculars and disappeared behind their front doors. For curious outsiders, Watch How We ... Read More »

October 22, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

My Ghosts

By Mary Swan

With her second novel, author Mary Swan seems to be issuing a challenge to readers: pay attention. It’s not just that her book is complex, layered, and boasts a large cast of characters – though ... Read More »

October 22, 2013 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels