The thing with an explosion is that it comes out of nowhere. And that's exactly what happens in Alison Watt's debut novel. Even though I knew that the 1917 event was at the heart of this Halifax story, I was completely absorbed in Clare and Fred's ordinary workday at
In which there is talk of true stories and stories that fall between the cracks of imagined facts and probabilities. Kyo Maclear's Birds Art Life (2017) Arranged as though composed over a twelve-month period, this would seem to be the perfect book to read slowly, meditatively. To allow the pages
Sarah Dunn's new novel, The Arrangement takes Owen and Lucy, who are imagining themselves unhappily married in the future, and encourages them to sleep around. The idea comes to the happily married couple via a conversation at a dinner party, which is also how Sarah Dunn came upon the idea
Do you ever feel the weight of your stack? Many of the books I've been reading have been rigorous and demanding. Commodore Ajith Boyagoda's story of imprisonment in Sri Lanka, Marcelino Truong's memories of coming-of-age in Vietnam between 1961 and 1963, Shirin Ebadi's work for human rights in Iran, Solmaz
Each of these books is penned by an indigenous writer, each considers a great loss, each is powerful on its own terms. Together their stories resonate and amplify readers' understanding of a vitally important issue. Virginia Pésémapéo Bordeleau's novel Winter Child appears to be the simpler tale. One woman's
