Quill and Quire

BOOK REVIEWS

★ Amphibian

By Carla Gunn

Phin Walsh, the nine-year-old narrator of Carla Gunn’s debut novel, is the kind of kid who could only be described as “sensitive.” Hours spent watching documentaries on the Green Channel have left him better informed ... Read More »

March 30, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Fall

By Colin McAdam

The “Fall” in the title of this finely crafted thriller is Fallon DeStindt, a student at an exclusive Ottawa-area boarding school who mysteriously disappears halfway through the book. Two people who seem to be implicated ... Read More »

March 23, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Gun Dogs

By James Langer

For a first book, Gun Dogs is assured and mature, clearly the product of a lengthy and well-spent apprenticeship. James Langer is one of several Canadian poets, including Steven Price, Matt Rader, and Joe Denham, ... Read More »

March 20, 2009 | Filed under: Poetry

Dante’s War

By Sandra Sabatini

In Dante’s War, Sandra Sabatini portrays fascist Italy through the lives of two young Italians: Dante becomes a soldier in the Second World War, while Angelina works on her family’s farm in a rural village. ... Read More »

March 20, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Wake

By Robert J. Sawyer

Admirers of his previous fiction might be forgiven for feeling that, with his new novel Wake (the first in his much-ballyhooed new contract with Penguin Canada), Toronto science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer has turned an ... Read More »

March 20, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Absent

By Sherri Vanderveen

Otto Sinclair has tried to do the right thing all his life. But under the weight of his mother’s strict rules and, later, his stultifying marriage, he can’t figure out how to lead a “normal” ... Read More »

March 20, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Crime of Fashion

By José Latour

Crime of Fashion, Cuban-born Cuban-born José Latour’s first novel since immigrating to Canada from Spain, brings his recurring protagonist, Elliot Steil, to the author’s adopted home of Toronto. When Jenny Scheindlin, retired fashion model and ... Read More »

March 20, 2009 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels