The cover image for Anthony De Sa's Kicking the Sky perfectly encapsulates the novel's themes, structure, setting and tone.* A child's bicycle leans against a garage door, the only sign of habitation. The view of the alleyway leaves the safety of home beyond the edges of the scene. The shadows are
Three for three: I've read all three of Stacey May Fowles' novels straight-through. It just happened. But although it was true of Be Good and Fear of Fighting, I was prepared to take my time with Infidelity, an emotionally exhausting subject. But, then, it happened again. Perhaps it simply comes down
The shortlist for the Toronto Book Award nearly always introduces me to the work of one writer whose work I did not know. (This year, I "discovered" Kevin Irie's poetry.) • Kamal Al-Solaylee, Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes (HarperCollins Canada) Harper Collins, 2012 Much of this memoir speaks
Perhaps it's only to give readers an idea of how special it all was to Charlie. "I suppose what I'm trying to say is that the writing of a man's life at least gives you an idea of just how special it all was to him the first time around."
Readers have an elevated view of the events in Cary Fagan's A Bird's Eye. "Over streets, over the buildings of the university with the zigzag pattern on their roofs, over the playing fields towards the downtown." And, yet, readers glimpse, in the opening chapters, all the characters necessary for an
