Vancouver Island author’s sophomore novel is “a tightly plotted, ambitious work of historical fiction that has fast-paced thriller elements and, at other times, the makings of a slow burn romance.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Last Secret, by Maia Caron (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2024) $25.00 / 9780385688826
Debut novel examines Hitler’s Aktion T4 program. With striking results: “When We Were Ashes is a powerful novel, flawlessly executed and emotionally resonant. It is haunting, and its words have stayed with me long after I closed the book.” —Trish Bowering reviews When We Were Ashes, by Andrew Boden (Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2024) $25.00 / 9781773103365
Inspired by family history, novelist sets volatile love affair in the midst of WWII, specifically with the guerrilla actions of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive in northern Italy. —Theo Dombrowski reviews The Cipher, by Genni Gunn (Winnipeg: Signature Editions, 2024) $22.95 / 9781773241425
Readers will feel anger and compassion “as they follow this pathetic, arthritic, alcoholic woman through the last years of her life as she finally realizes that Hitler’s horrific ‘Final Solution’ was the most odious event in history.” —Valerie Green reviews The Imposter, by Johanna Van Zanten (Las Vegas: Histria Books, 2024) $29.99 / 9761592113767
“A whole tradition of poetry met postmodernism in him, as he has achieved what he set out to do—carry it forward, weave it in, pass it on to us, and then let us swim on upstream, as his hands lift away.” —Harold Rhenisch reviews Poems Selected and New, by D.C. Reid (Victoria: Ekstasis Editions, 2023) $25.95 /8781771714129
“Thomson casts a fictional net over the special hell of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in the 1970s and early 1980s.” Larry Hannant reviews The Struggle Continues: An arduous journey of hope by Christopher Thomson (Victoria: FriesenPress, 2023) $19.49 / 9781039157613
“’Pathway to the Stars’ is a must for anyone interested in the story of Canadian aviation and the proud military accomplishments of the RCAF.” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Pathway to the Stars: 100 Years of the Royal Canadian Air Force by Michael Hood and Tom Jenkins (Toronto: Aevo UTP, University of Toronto Press, 2023) $39.95 / 9781487547431
Political nail-biter spans three continents, delves into brutal realpolitik, and features a plot that requires a reader’s “concentrated effort.” —Valerie Green reviews The Black State, by John Delacourt (Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2024) $19.95 / 9781989689608
“Why would a woman become a soldier, specifically a male soldier?” Phyllis Reeve reviews Sisters in Arms: Female Warriors from Antiquity to the New Millennium by Julie Wheelwright (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2020) $32.50 / 9781472838001
“Much of this memoir is about a daughter’s obsessive search for her father’s secrets in his political, professional, and personal life.” Peter Hay reviews Dreams, Nightmares, and Reality – A Family Memoir by Helga Hatvany (Virginia: Mascot Books, 2022) $23.63 / 9781645439820
With mesmeric effects, a debut novel blends the beautiful, surreal, and disturbing. —Daniel Gawthrop reviews The Invisible Hotel, by Yeji Y. Ham (Toronto: Bond Street Books, 2024) $34.00 / 9780385698054
Debut novelist “explores the meaning of love, family loyalty, the struggle for self-expression, and devotion to homeland in times of constant upheaval.” —Daniel Gawthrop reviews Zulaikha, by Niloufar-Lily Soltani (Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2023) $24.95 / 9781771339568
Historical fiction where the “compelling characters and exciting plot never falter.” —Valerie Green reviews The Jazz Club Spy, by Roberta Rich (Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2023) $24.99 / 9781982187729
An “exhilarating” sci-fi epic whose “each page is a gift.” —Zoe McKenna reviews Shadow Matter, by S.W. Mayse (Calgary: Tyche Books, 2023) $24.99 / 9781989407554
Family revelations, social upheaval, and war’s brutality captured in historical fiction…
Vanessa Winn reviews ‘Destiny’ and ‘Legacy,’ by Valerie Green (Surrey: Hancock House, 2023) $24.95
When we launched The British Columbia Review — then The Ormsby Review — in September 2016, little did we expect that seven years later we’d post our 2000th review. I’m grateful to everyone — reviewers, publishers, authors, booksellers, and readers — for making it such a success and promoting BC writers, writing, and culture. It…
Read more No. 2000 for the BC Review!
Landbridge [life in fragments] by Y-Dang Troeung Toronto: Alchemy by Knopf Canada, 2023 $35.00 / 9781039008762 Reviewed by Theresa Kishkan * When I opened this beautifully-designed book, with its cover drawings of delicate buds of kapok (in Khmer, Y-Dang Troeung tells us, planting a kapok tree, which makes no sound in the wind, is an…
Read more ‘Strands of a life’
Away From the Dead by David Bergen Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2023 $24.95 / 9781773103105 Reviewed by Trish Bowering * “She asked him to read to her. And so he did. And every evening after that, he picked up his book and read… The story was both simple and difficult. She said that normally people…
Read more 1957 Hardship and a sense of hope
Out of the Dark by Julie Lawson Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2023 $14.95 / 9781774712344 Reviewed by Alison Acheson * “… just don’t get anything fancy. We are who we are”: words spoken by the main character’s mother in Julie Lawson’s middle grade/young adult novel Out of the Dark. The words reflect a theme to the…
Read more 1940 For YA readers: Halifax in WWI
The Matryoshka Memoirs: A Story of Ukrainian Forced Labour, the Leica Camera Factory, and Nazi Resistance by Sasha Colby Toronto: ECW Press, 2023 $24.95 / 9781770417359 Reviewed by Theresa Kishkan * More than 3 decades ago, on a family camping trip, I bought a set of matryoshka dolls in an art gallery in Wells, BC….
Read more 1930 From one generation to another