★ Held

Anne Michaels’s new novel opens on a battlefield in France in 1917, as John lies wounded in the snow. The dozens of short passages, some as concise as two words (“Memory seeping”), capture John’s experience, ... Read More »

November 15, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Nights Too Short to Dance

By Marie-Claire Blais; Katia Grubisic (trans.)

Marie-Claire Blais first appeared on the literary landscape fully formed at the age of 20; her debut, La Belle Bête (translated into English as Mad Shadows), caused a furor in her home province of Quebec. ... Read More »

October 18, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

★ The Adversary

By Michael Crummey

On the acknowledgements page of his gobsmackingly accomplished book The Adversary, Michael Crummey (author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize–shortlisted The Innocents) touches on the “looting and pilfering” that went into the writing of his sixth novel. ... Read More »

October 4, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

★ Roaming

By Mariko Tamaki; Jillian Tamaki

Roaming, the latest graphic novel from cousins Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, explores friendship, sex, and identity in an energetic romp through New York City rendered with sharp dialogue and in mesmerizing tableaus of soft ... Read More »

September 20, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Graphica, Reviews

The Economy of Sparrows

By Trevor Herriot

Given the sudden and vehement uptick in climate-change disasters across the globe, we likely can expect novels with a focus on environmental issues to pop up with ever-increasing frequency. Two recent entries into the eco-fiction ... Read More »

September 20, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Reuniting with Strangers

By Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio

Reuniting With Strangers is a novel about motion. After years of waiting – either in Canada or the Philippines – every character in Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio’s debut work of fiction finds themselves reuniting with a family ... Read More »

September 13, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Semi-Detached

By Elizabeth Ruth

When Laura Keys, the contemporary protagonist of Elizabeth Ruth’s Semi-Detached, first enters the house at Two Condor Avenue on an icy winter day in Toronto in 2013, she feels as if she has “stepped into ... Read More »

September 6, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Do You Remember Being Born?

By Sean Michaels

“So what happens when you don’t need a human being to write anything anymore? When you can just turn to your magic smartbox and say, ‘Write me a novel about ornithologists and spies?’” This question, ... Read More »

September 6, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

Learned by Heart

By Emma Donoghue

Historical fiction often dwells in the gap between what happened and what was recorded. The best examples also explore the historical conditions for why that gap exists. Emma Donoghue’s latest novel, Learned by Heart, does ... Read More »

August 30, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels, Reviews

★ The Abduction of Seven Forgers

By Sean Dixon

A novel as sheerly entertaining as it is profound is a rare treat, and Sean Dixon’s newest work is exactly that. The Abduction of Seven Forgers is the latest fiction for adults by the ... Read More »

August 23, 2023 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Prev 123 4....236 237 Next