The British Columbia Review | Books and Culture of British Columbia

‘Look at stuff … fiddle around’

The images “not only draw, delight, and beguile the eye (there’s no denying that), but invite thought—of both the viewer’s own experiences with and responses to the iconic landscapes of western, central, eastern, and northern Canada and, of course, their engagement with, appreciation of, and/or reactions to the Vancouver Island artist’s painted canvases.” —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Takao Tanabe: Inside Passage | Passage intérieur, with essays by Sherri Shinobu Kajiwara, Steven McNeil, Jonathan Shaughnessy, and Kiriko Watanabe (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2026) $65.00 / 9781773104935

Coach’s daughter + hockey player = (well, you know)

The fourth romance novel in the Off the Ice series is focussed on a hockey jock, a brainy coach’s daughter, and… a statistics class. Marred by some “bland, superficial, formulaic characters” and subpar writing, the novel nevertheless features tender romantic moments and “exquisite, genuine interactions.”—Sergio Espinosa reviews Embrace by Bal Khabra (Toronto: Viking, 2026) $26.95 / 9781037803253

[ book excerpt: poetry ]

“This Story Never Made the Headlines,” “They Had to Let Go,” “Orange Blanket,” and “Crumpled Woman”: excerpts from Unresponsive, by Kelly Madden (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2026) $22.00 / 9781773861982

Thelma Hu, where are you?

In a “charming little story” that’s part of a geriatric amateur sleuth cozy mystery series (say that three times!), there’s a mystery of a locked door, which leads to further inquiries for a formidable octogenarian sleuth. —Valerie Green reviews Stella Ryman and the Search for Thelma Hu—A Fairmount Manor Mystery, by Mel Anastasiou (Langley: Pulp Literature Press, 2025) $24.95 / 97819888865799

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From A to B and back again

“This is why we pick up an anthology: it’s a flight of stories to be savoured, shared with a friend or two, and to find new voices and new eyes to explore.” With that said, the collection’s Toronto-centrism, tenuous cohesion, and puzzling focus raise some questions for our reviewer. —Alison Acheson reviews Women, Walking: Notes on Lives in Motion, edited by Zahra Ebrahim and Jane Farrow (Toronto: Coach House Press, 2026) $25.95 / 9781552455203

A (comic) tale told by a Lemon… signifying amusement

Campus high-jinx within the Department of Mathematics at fictional Invigus University in the Fraser Valley involve secrets, lies, a missing prof, intimate apparel, black market drugs, and many, many equations. Six of seven plot elements function admirably. —Brett Josef Grubisic reviews Topology of Sexy Shoes, by Erik Talvila (Altona: Friesen Press, 2026) $15.95 / 9781038354792

Downey 3. feature cover Escape from Siberia copy

‘The plight of refugees’

“In recent times, the image of thousands upon thousands of faces scattered alive and dead along the makeshift routes crossing into Europe, Britain, and the United States. It is easy to build a sympathetic distance from the anonymous crowds, who are often from nations without statehood, fleeing conflicts many Westerners are only vaguely aware of. At times, certain stories can break through the wall of complacency to instill humanitarian outrage. This happened in 2015, when the image of a drowned Syrian toddler, washed up on a Turkish beach after having escaped his country’s civil war, went globally viral. The individual tragedy of that photograph emphasized the human story at the centre of every refugee crisis. In Escape from Siberia, Escape from Memory, Paul Wojdak uncovers just such a story in his own family history.” Matthew Downey reviews Escape from Siberia, Escape from Memory: An Odyssey Across Two Oceans & Nine Countries to Arrive Home, by Paul Wojdak (Victoria: Friesen Press, 2024) $32.99 / 9781039196865

Green 3. feature cover Unequivocal Magic copy

Rediscovering the actress through portraiture

“The author was in fact setting out to research the forgotten iconic photographer, H. Walter Barnett. She visited the Victoria & Albert Museum in London where she came across this particularly intriguing photograph of Bernhardt taken by Barnett when Bernhardt was much older, and her career had by then already spanned over fifty years.” Valerie Green reviews Unequivocal Magic: Sarah Bernhardt and the Journey of a Portrait, by Alex Bertram (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2026) $42.99 / 9781771127189

Paul 3. feature cover Ground to Stand On

A Newfoundland girl

“Sandra’s story about her family is one of many anecdotes she recounts in Ground to Stand On: A Canadian Literary Life. Growing up she finds that her young life is being shaped by social and economic forces beyond her control and the geography and landscape of Newfoundland. The book is part family memoir and part a recollection of her extraordinary career in academia.” Bill Paul reviews Ground to Stand On: A Canadian Literary Life, by Sandra Djwa (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2026) $34.95 / 9780228027706

Dreaming spires and concrete halls

“Similarly, the modern University is under threat by a changing focus away from a celebration of the Liberal Arts toward a disproportionate emphasis on the hard sciences due to perceptions around return on investment. Across the world we see reductions in budgets for Liberal Arts and an increase in rhetoric that questions what economic value there is in these programs. This is the destruction of The Shire again before us; the development of the individual into a tool for economic production instead of a cultivation of what makes us uniquely human. The digitalization of education has introduced the logic of efficiency into learning itself, where speed and scale threaten the slower virtues of contemplation and care.” Scott Gibson contributes his SFU Graduate Liberal Studies essay Dreaming Spires and Concrete Halls: The Poetics of Place from Oxford to Simon Fraser University

Exploding the pattern

A book of “profound, playful work in two parts,” an allusive collection of prose poems 1) subverts “expectations with bold, delightful leaps of logic” and 2) communes with poets (past and present). —Jodi Lundgren reviews Dismantling, by Eve Joseph (Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2026) $20.00 / 9781772142563

Tucker 3. feature cover Wildlife Weekends Cover

Invitation to the wild, reimagined

“For me, that is the greatest inspiration the book offers. It affirms that outdoor adventure is not always about reaching the highest peak or covering the longest trail. Sometimes, it’s about sitting quietly on a shoreline, watching a seal bobbing in the current. Sometimes, it is about recognizing the return of a bird whose call you first heard as a child. Sometimes, it is about returning to a place you thought you knew—and seeing it again, this time with attention.” Amy Tucker reviews Wildlife Weekends in Southern British Columbia: Day and Multi-day Trips from Vancouver for Wildlife Viewing, by Roy Jantzen (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2024) $45 / 9781771604604

‘1 Guitar, 4 Cases’

Four cases, four diverse settings, four discrete time periods, and one investigator: an author’s musician/sleuth tackles mysteries on land and sea and reveals his personal history along the way. Plus, colourful characters for days! —Valerie Green reviews Four Short Sets with Jason Davey: A Jason Davey Mystery Collection, by Winona Kent (New Westminster: Blue Devil Books, 2026) $14.99 / 9781739046163

Brown 3. feature cover He Did Not Conquer

The quest for Canada

“It seems the last thing Franklin and his congressional confrères might have imagined is that ‘Canada’ would go on to become a sovereign country of its own, the thing the Americans were aiming for, exclusive of the shiny new USA.” Steven Brown reviews He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada, by Madelaine Drohan (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2025) $27.99 / 9781459754188

The Lowry walk

“As Trevor Carolan reminds us, in a welcome bit of shade on a hot day, many consider Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, and he lived in a shack just over there.” Trevor Marc Hughes writes about The Lowry Walk, held on July 21, 2026, guided by author and historian Trevor Carolan.

[Excerpt: short fiction]

“Perfect Obedience,” an excerpt from What Endures: Stories, by Pauline Holdstock (Windsor: Biblioasis, 2026) $24.95 / 9781771967174

Carolan 3. feature cover seventy-two seasons

Practice in low, distracted times

“Farrant picks on the connection in Japan’s Zen Buddhist tradition between noticing and waiting. Reaching back further yet, she points to China’s ancient Taoist oracle the I Ching with its emphasis on patience, and on finding harmony within the timing of notable changes. This attention to noticing has memorable forebears.” Trevor Carolan reviews Seventy-Two Seasons: A Memoir About Noticing, by M.A.C. Farrant (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2026) $22.95 / 9781553807438

The art of cultivation

Set in Montreal and Bangalore over a span of 63 years, a smart and emotionally resonant novel captures the life and times of “[g]uarded, imaginative, prickly, sentimental, [and] superstitious” Asha Mohan. A touch pessimistic and fatalistic, this intriguing, complex character holds the view that “the worst possible scenarios have shaped my life always.” —Alexander Sallas reviews Asha in Her Garden, by Anita Rau Badami (Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2026) $36.00 / 9780735274341

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‘The archival process’

“Alex Rose’s collection of six stories and four essays looks to the personal past as he retrieves snapshots to assemble in his comprehension of now, the shocked realisation of imminent end times and removal of empathy in the equation of human existence.” Linda Rogers reviews Acquainted with Grief: Stories & Essays, by Alex Rose (Victoria: Walhachin Press, 2025)

Friends close, enemies closer… husband closest

Suggestion: Let’s travel to Spain, start a vineyard, and heal our relationship! Reply: Sounds like a dream! [Our reviewer: “A nightmare of troubled (euphemism) male psyches, fraught (euphemism) marriages, an immersive, entertaining thriller.] —Jessica Poon reviews Strangers in the Villa, by Robyn Harding (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2026) $24.99 / 9781538774014

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