Nothing Could Be Further from the Truth by Christopher Evans Toronto: House of Anansi, 2022 $22.99 / 9781487010331 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Nothing Could Be Further from the Truth manages a neat trick, the kind of move that could inspire many an author to mutter “I’d give my eye teeth for that.” The…
Read more 1368 Across seventeen stories
The Cine Star Salon: a novel by Leah Ranada Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2021 $21.95 / 9781774390320 Reviewed by W.H. New * This first novel by Leah Ranada is a contemporary version of an old trope, the growing-up-and-away novel, where the protagonist has to find out how to be herself, stop depending on others, deal with…
Read more 1367 Philippine style
Fake It So Real by Susan Sanford Blades Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2020 $21.95 / 9780889713888 Reviewed by Carol Matthews * “I sometimes call it, like, a punk rock Alice Munro,” Susan Sanford Blades said about her debut novel Fake It So Real in an interview with Capital Daily. While it does focus on some of…
Read more 1364 Vodka, bubble bath, blue lines
Vile Spirits by John MacLachlan Gray Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2021 $29.95 / 9781771622776 Reviewed by W.H. New * Straight out: I loved this book. It’s lively and fast-paced, it sparkles with satire, and it’s chock full of arresting characters (and a few who get away). Vile Spirits is marketed as a mystery, and…
Read more 1360 Spirited Vancouver
Binge: 60 Stories to Make Your Head Feel Different by Douglas Coupland Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada, 2021 $29.95 / 9781039000520 Reviewed by Peter Babiak * In a Guardian essay commemorating thirty years anniversary of Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, Douglas Coupland explained why he wrote the book. “I disliked being classified as…
Read more 1356 Snippets of a consumer society
Half Brothers and Other Stories: a novella and four fictions by Bill Stenson Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishing, 2021 $23.95 / 9781896949857 Reviewed by W.H. New * Bill Stenson has done something remarkable with these stories: he’s mastered a plain style, one so accessible that you think you’re listening to someone speak. It’s an…
Read more 1355 Cowichan plain
Nowadays and Lonelier: Stories by Carmella Gray-Cosgrove Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021 $19.95 / 9781551528717 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * The term “survivalist” conjures images of open fires, rugged hunters, and makeshift tents. Yet, as Carmella Gray-Cosgrove demonstrates in her debut short story collection, Nowadays and Lonelier, there are many different faces to survival in…
Read more 1353 Opioids & war memorials
Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Vintage Canada), 2020 $19.95 / 9780735281967 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Set in Kirovka, a Ukrainian industrial town 900 km from Moscow, immediately before and after the fall of the Soviet Union, Good Citizens Need Not Fear has a sweep that transcends…
Read more 1351 Fifteen brands of sausage
The Unsuitable Bride by Pamela McGarry Gibsons: Well Hall Press, 2021 $20.00 / 9781777513405 Available on Amazon or, for $20 plus postage, by contacting mcgarrypamela@gmail.com Reviewed by Valerie Green * Pamela McGarry’s novel The Unsuitable Bride was not quite what I had expected. It tells the story of Nina Tolhurst, born in Calcutta to English…
Read more 1349 The very essence of India
The Errant Husband by Elizabeth Haynes Regina: Radiant Press, 2021 $25.00 / 9781989274583 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * This debut novel treats the reader to a third-person narrative of a female quest with Jungian undertones. The Errant Husband scrutinizes gender relations as it dissects the anatomy of a marriage against the backdrop of historical and…
Read more 1338 Waiting for Hernando & Wally
The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland and Stewart), 2021 $24.95 / 9780771094965 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * Shashi Bhat, editor-in-chief of EVENT magazine and winner of the Writers’ Trust / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, presents a standout piece of fiction in her novel The Most…
Read more 1337 Oboes and animal crackers
The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Berkley), 2021 $22.00 / 9780593334195 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * Set on Salt Spring Island, “a small yet eccentric haven between Vancouver Island and the mainland [of British Columbia]” (p. 5), Karina Halle’s The Royals Next Door begins with the unpleasant image of…
Read more 1336 Salt Spring shack and mansion
Harking by George Mercer North Saanich: George Mercer, 2021; printed by Friesens, Altona, Manitoba $19.99 / 9780987975485 Reviewed by Valerie Green * George Mercer’s book Harking is described as a book for young adults. I am sure, however, it will appeal to people of all ages who enjoy and respect the wilderness. Set in Jasper…
Read more 1332 Harking: growing up in Jasper
All Is Well by Katherine Walker Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2021 $24.95 / 9781771872157 Reviewed by Heather Graham * Christine Wright, the protagonist of Katherine Walker’s novel All Is Well, is a recently ordained priest in the Anglican Church of Canada with fifteen years of military service to her credit, some of it in Special Forces….
Read more 1331 Reverend Wright & the wrongdoers
This Eden by Ed O’Loughlin Toronto: House of Anansi, 2021 $24.95 / 9781487005696 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * As Ed O’Loughlin’s fourth novel, This Eden, closes, the still-unnamed narrator declares, “I like not knowing what’s going to happen next.” As becomes apparent within the first pages of the novel, an affection for the unknown and…
Read more 1324 A pencil & sticky note thriller
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Del Ray Books), 2021 $37.00 / 9780593356821 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * One of the reasons humans are drawn to fiction is because we want desperately to know what it’s like to live a life that isn’t our own. We live vicariously through the…
Read more 1321 The fantasies of El Elvis & Maite
Monster Child by Rahela Nayebzadah Hamilton, ON: Wolsak & Wynn, 2021 $20.00 / 9781989496305 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Not many would expect that a novel called Monster Child would be a comfortable read. In fact, “comfortable” is just about the last word any reader would use of this debut novel by Rahela Nayebzadah. Towards the…
Read more 1320 This maelstrom of emotions
A writers’ tribute to Ron Hatch by Richard Mackie and Ronsdale authors * Editor’s note: a courteous elderly gentleman used to stop by my office at UBC when I was book reviews editor at BC Studies between 2011 and 2016. This was Ron Hatch, a retired professor of English at UBC and publisher of Ronsdale…
Read more 1312 A writers’ tribute to Ron Hatch
emerge 21: The Writer’s Studio Anthology by Emma Cleary, Raoul Fernandes, Dayna Mahannah, Christina Myers, and KT Wagner (editors), with a foreword by Renée Sarojini Saklikar Burnaby: Simon Fraser University, 2021 [price unknown] / 9781772870831 Reviewed by Michael Turner * For travellers who find reading and writing an essential service, I’m sure there is at…
Read more 1311 The land of reading and writing
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good Toronto: HarperCollins Canada (Harper Perennial), 2020 $22.99 / 9781443459181 Reviewed by Harper Campbell * Teaching and healing have always been important aspects to Indigenous writing in Canada. Look at any famous Indigenous author, whether that be Pauline Johnson or Richard Wagamese, and you’ll find that teaching and healing are central…
Read more 1309 The object of Indigenous writing