The fourth volume of an epic series—with “two branching timelines that have a massive crossover of characters, cities, histories, and wars”—grabs attention for its deft and artful handling of complexity, and for its queer inclusivity. —Myshara McMyn reviews Wake (The Call of the Rift, Book Four), by Jae Waller (Toronto: ECW Press, 2023) $23.95 / 9781770414594
Family, friendship, prejudice, and loss are thoughtfully explored in a pair of chapter books for young readers. “There’s such valuing of connection in these pages, and an honesty to the whole,” writes our reviewer. —Alison Acheson reviews A Promise to Protect, by Nikki Bergstresser (Victoria: Heritage House, 2025) $14.95 / 9781772035438 and I Won’t Feel This Way Forever, by Kim Spencer (Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2025) $14.95 / 9781459838208
Phantasmagorical speculative fiction that spans centuries and jumps between dimensions, a novel unfolds as “a bold, evocative exploration of what it means to awaken to one’s purpose in a world shaped by both ancient forces and uncertain futures.” —Raeshelle Pascual reviews A Dream Wants Waking, by Lydia Kwa (Hamilton: Wolsak & Wynn, 2023) $22.00 / 9781989496756
“[R]eading this novel made me livid in the best possible way. The supernatural aspects of the novel are, arguably, the least frightening; normalized human cruelty and deep-seated male entitlement are infinitely more terrifying. Prepare to flinch.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Hunger We Pass Down, by Jen Sookfong Lee (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2025) $26.00 / 9780771012853
An intriguing, alchemical novel “that blends the real and the unreal into something more myth than fable, more real than magic, for all its occasionally fantastical elements,” has a “dreamy quality that is enhanced by the understated prose.” —Ryan Frawley reviews The Unfinished World, by Marilyn Bowering (Montreal: Linda Leith Publishing, 2025) $26.95 / 9781773901800
Author’s third book of poems, is “a charming sequence that boldly documents the speaker’s firsthand experience with mental illness. Far from unfamiliar to those who have not been diagnosed with such an illness, the speaker’s thoughts and feelings represent an intensifying of the human spirit in all its joy and personal inadequacy and, most of all, in its need for a sense of purpose to feel whole.” —gillian harding-russell reviews Notes From The Ward, by Steffi Tad-Y (Guelph: Gordon Hill Press, 2025) $20.00 / 9781774221679
Elite athletes with personal demons and career doubts meet in a sizzling romance novel strengthened by complex characters, appealing peer group bantering, and, of course, plentiful spark. —Jessica Poon reviews Revolve, by Bal Khabra (Toronto: Berkley, 2025) $19.00 / 9780593818305
Reissue of an avant garde but out-of-print 1981 novel with a “highly experimental structure and unabashed presentation of its occasionally difficult subject matter” highlights how “sometimes art with this level of originality takes longer than it should to gain the appreciation that it deserves.” —Logan Macnair reviews The Bee Book, by Ann Rosenberg (Toronto: Invisible Publishing, 2025) $24.95 / 9781778430794
WWII-set prequel to a book series portrays an unexpected spying assignment for young Lane Winslow. And Christmas with her grandparents! Rousing and entertaining, it’s a tale Alfred Hitchcock would have relished. —Bill Engleson reviews A Season for Spies—A Lane Winslow Prequel, by Iona Whishaw (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2025) $19.95 / 9781771514828
“The title’s invocation of Van Gogh’s painting proves apt. Like the artist’s swirling night sky, Mootoo’s prose contains turbulence within careful composition. The result resembles pointillism: individual impressions that cohere into recognizable forms only when viewed from proper distance.” —Selena Mercuri reviews. Starry Starry Night, by Shani Mootoo (Toronto: Book*hug Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781771669566
In a complex, wide-ranging novel with themes related to family, violence, and cultural identity, generations of women strive for peace and contentment despite the sorrowful, imposing outside world. —Theo Dombrowski reviews Songs from This and That Country, by Gail Sidone Šobat (Winnipeg: Great Plains Publishing, 2025) $27.95 / 9781773371412
In a “brutally frank, but also hopeful” novel that “nail[s] the adolescent voice—there’s plenty of profanity, a touch of irreverence, and no small amount of self-deprecation,” a teenage girl struggles to manage her compulsions and find equilibrium. —Jessica Poon reviews A Drop in the Ocean, by Léa Taranto (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) $19.95 / 9781551519813
An author’s fourth historical novel is buoyed by tumultuous ocean voyage scenes and a love for the ages. Its exposition, however, raises the question of whether it might have met greater success as nonfiction. —Valerie Green reviews The Rebel’s Wife, by Gerald Richardson Brown (Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2025) $24.95 / 9781989467794
A fiction writer’s first book of nonfiction—a memoir “that is at once intimate, wryly humorous, and informative as it takes the reader from that tumble on the mountain trail to the present”—addresses the difficult details of living with Parkinson’s Disease “unflinchingly, with candour and occasionally an exasperated wit.” —Trish Bowering reviews In This Faulty Machine: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation, by Kathy Page (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2025) $34.95 / 9781037800887
A poetry series—with an aim to “produce beautiful volumes and to alert readers to poems that remain vital to thinking about urgencies of the contemporary moment”—lives up to its ambitions with authoritative, revelatory essays and an impressive sampling of a poet’s “visceral,” “wry,” “potent,” “grim,” and intermittently comical poems. —Steven Ross Smith reviews Hunger: The Poetry of Susan Musgrave, selected with an introduction by Micheline Maylor (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2025) $23.99 / 9781771126953
Acknowledging that “life’s mid-point [is] now far behind,” a writer’s volume of poems meditates on the past, family, nature, faith, love, and, generally (says our reviewer), “the latter part of life, with all of its disappointments and consolations.” —Carellin Brooks reviews The Time of Falling Apart, by Wendy Donawa (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $22.95 / 9781998526307
“A book like One Thousand and a Night stands or falls on the portrayal of its main character, and Lyalya passes every test. She is strong and forthright, brave and opinionated, resilient and optimistic, and it’s hard not to feel just a little in awe of her, just the way her niece does.” —Ryan Frawley reviews One Thousand and A Night as Told by Larissa, Construction Shock Worker, by Marina Sonkina (Gananoque: Guernica Editions, 2025) $25.00 / 9781771839662
In a Vancouver-set debut novel, “an unsettling story about victimization and forgiveness,” 29-year-old Crystal and her teenage daughter Becky struggle on the long winding path of their lives. The “restrained and understated” writing anchors a harrowing account of precarity. —Bill Paul reviews Most Grievous Fault, by Meg Todd (Madeira Park: Nightwood Editions, 2025) $24.95 / 9780889714984
A lovely, poetic, and musical novella traces a homeward journey of two Canadians to Ireland. The story offers enchantment for any reader: “This book would make particularly excellent reading for anyone planning a trip there, as well as those interested in Irish history or ancestry.” —Trish Bowering reviews Looking for Cornelius, by Diana Hayes (Eugene: Resource Publications, 2025) $21.00 / 9798385250332
Clashing politics and unexpected romantic feelings animate a socially conscious novel set in Winnipeg during an era of social disruption and economic disparity. Plot twists “keep readers interested in this study of home-front class differences.” —Ron Verzuh reviews The Bittersweet Year, by Barry Potyondi (N.p.: Holand Press, 2025) $16.49 / 9798297500709