Reviews

★ What I Know About You

When a novel receives multiple international awards and accolades in its original language it’s difficult not to approach the English translation with a combination of trepidation and high expectation. Will the book meet the high ... Read More »

September 25, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance

By Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel; with Sean Carleton

The summer of 1990 was bookended by one of the most dramatic events in Canadian history. Thousands of paramilitary Quebec police and Canadian Armed Forces laid siege to the unceded territories of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke, ... Read More »

September 25, 2024 | Filed under: History, Indigenous Peoples, Memoir & Biography, Race & Ethnic Relations, Reviews

★ Juiceboxers

By Benjamin Hertwig

When readers first meet Plinko, the focal character of Edmonton writer Benjamin Hertwig’s harrowing and powerful debut novel, Juiceboxers, it is 1999 and he is 16 years old, a fan of The Lord of the ... Read More »

September 18, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim

By Jacob Wren

A Jacob Wren novel is known for several things: narrators undergoing neurotic self-interrogation, a consideration of the gap between theory and practice, and a certain metafictional flair when it comes to signalling the work’s own ... Read More »

September 18, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

★ The Capital of Dreams

By Heather O’Neill

Fourteen-year-old Sofia Bottom has found herself alone due to the war that has come to her homeland. Elysia, a small European country, was once a vibrant, sensual, otherworldly place – where the arts flourished and ... Read More »

September 11, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Vantage Points: On Media as Trans Memoir

By Chase Joynt

In the opening pages of Vantage Points, in a section titled “How This Book Works,” Chase Joynt quotes Douglas Coupland writing about Marshall McLuhan: “Art is art. And an artist, according to Marshall, is someone ... Read More »

September 11, 2024 | Filed under: Criticism & Essays, Memoir & Biography, Reviews

Songs for the Brokenhearted

By Ayelet Tsabari

Ayelet Tsabari’s Songs for the Brokenhearted begins with Zohara Haddad returning to Israel in 1995 for her mother Saida’s funeral. Zohara has been living in New York, where she is a graduate student at NYU, ... Read More »

September 4, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

★ Every Night I Dream I’m a Monk, Every Night I Dream I’m a Monster

By Damian Tarnopolsky

With his new short story collection Every Night I Dream I’m a Monk, Every Night I Dream I’m a Monster, Toronto writer Damian Tarnopolsky (Goya’s Dog) explores the full potential of the form, pressing to the ... Read More »

August 28, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Short, Reviews

Oil People

By David Huebert

At heart, Oil People is a story about adolescence – its volatility and uncertainties, the questions and intense learning curve. David Huebert’s debut novel stars Jade Armbruster, who is soon to be 14 and resides in a ... Read More »

August 14, 2024 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

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