Bit Rot: stories + essays

It seems quaint that Douglas Coupland’s latest work should arrive in so prosaic a form as thinly sliced trees bound between slightly thicker-cut trees. After all, the Vancouver visual artist, writer, and designer – now ... Read More »

September 12, 2016 | Filed under: Science, Technology & Environment

Every Hidden Thing

By Kenneth Oppel

With his new novel, Toronto-based YA author Kenneth Oppel takes readers back in time for a high stakes, romantic adventure set against the classic backdrop of a bloody conflict between rival gangs of ... dinosaur ... Read More »

September 8, 2016 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

Memoirs of a Sidekick

By David Skuy

In Memoirs of a Sidekick, David Skuy – best known for the young-adult sports titles Rocket Blues, Striker, and the Game Time series – changes tack to examine the dynamics of a middle-school presidential campaign ... Read More »

September 7, 2016 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

Nostalgia

By M.G. Vassanji

Having previously mined his South Asian heritage, East African upbringing, and North American education in historically soaked fiction and non-fiction, M.G. Vassanji turns to the future in his new novel, somewhat ironically titled Nostalgia. On ... Read More »

September 7, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Hungry Bird

By Jeremy Tankard

From three great talents in Canadian children’s literature come two picture books that highlight some of the more challenging aspects of childhood. In Jeremy Tankard’s Hungry Bird, Bird is hangry. In Hurry Up, Henry by ... Read More »

September 7, 2016 | Filed under: Picture Books

The Couple Next Door

By Shari Lapeña

The July/August issue of The Atlantic features a long essay by Terrence Rafferty about the recent spate of best-selling crime fiction by women. “A number of years ago,” Rafferty writes, “I realized that most of ... Read More »

September 7, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

All the Things We Leave Behind

By Riel Nason

Riel Nason’s All the Things We Leave Behind is a novel of hauntings: characters are haunted, variously, by people, nature, memory, and the way things were. Evoking nostalgic reverie – bolstered by its summer 1977 ... Read More »

September 7, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

★ The Two of Us

By Kathy Page

Toward the end of her fine new collection of deceptively expansive short stories, Kathy Page unfurls a little number called “Daddy,” told from the point of view of a child spelunking with his (her?) father ... Read More »

September 6, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Short

True Arab Love

By Issa J. Boullata

The first work of fiction by Chinese writer Xue Yiwei to appear in English, Shenzheners is dedicated to “the Irishman who inspires me.” Given that the book comprises a suite of stories focusing on denizens ... Read More »

September 6, 2016 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels