Lynda Barry says a “happy ending is hardly important, though we may be glad it’s there”. But there’s more to it, she says: “The real joy is knowing that if you felt the trouble in the story, your kingdom isn’t dead.”* Doubleday Canada, 2015 If one reads a
Fever at Dawn by Péter Gárdos began with a box of letters, or, more accurately, the letter-writers, who would become his parents. House of Anansi, 2016 "But for fifty years I did not know that their letters still existed. In the midst of political unheaval and the chaos of moving to
It's clear from the beginning: one might long for escape from this narrative, might opt for a bloody end rather than endure more misery. House of Anansi, 2016 "No one but a fool could look so happy in a miserable house, could they? The mice here probably throw
Christopher Marlowe's story begins and ends with a brawl, in the hands of Michelle Butler Hallett. Goose Lane Editions, 2016 This Marlowe focuses on the final months of the playwright's life, with his death registered as May 30, 1593. His patron, Thomas Walsingham, openly supported his plays and verses,
Three of these books were inspired by the conjunction between my own shelves and this year's Random House Bingo, which has a CanLit theme. The Tiger Claw filled my Nominated-for-the-Giller square, Evan Munday's second October Schwartz for the Mystery-or-Thriller square, and Elaine Lui's book about her relationship with her mother
