BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Feisty icon; passionate Canadian; unrelenting foe of all pretension; energetic provocateur-at-large and most importantly, superb and dedicated writer, there cannot be a Canadian alive who is unaware of the legacy that is Farley Mowat. And No Bird Sang and A Whale for the Killing are the first books in a new Douglas & McIntyre library of handsomely redesigned paperback editions of Farley Mowat's work.
Turned away from the Royal Canadian Air Force for his apparent youth and frailty, Farley Mowat joined the infantry in 1940. The young second lieutenant soon earned the trust of the soldiers under his command, and was known to bend army rules to secure a stout drink, or find warm -- if non-regulation -- clothing. But when Mowat and his regiment engaged with elite German forces in the mountains of Sicily, the optimism of their early days as soldiers was replaced by despair. With a naturalist's eyes and ears, Mowat takes in the full dark depths of war -- and his moving account of military service, and the friends he left behind, is also a plea for peace. It is one of the most searing and unforgettable World War II memoirs from any Canadian.
"Grim, moving, eloquent. Reads lik a novel and fixes images in the mind like a movie -- a cross between The Red Badge of Courage and Apocalypse Now."
"A seemingly effortless evocation of the fire that shaped a Canadian generation...bound to rank as one of Mowat's major accomplishments."
"Mowat's finest work."
"In battle scenes of searing immediacy and resonating insights, [Mowat] conveys the immense toll war wages on men's psyches as they are thrown into suicidal situations by a sacrificial high command...powerful."
"One of the very few books on World War II that can stand with the rich literature of World War I."
"Superb...Comes stunningly close to describing the indescribably horror and terror of war."
"An act of courage and ineffably moving."
"And No Birds Sang remains the devastating memoir, the brilliant soldier's reflection of war that this country has produced. Haunting. Maddening. Frightening. At times, even hilarious. There aren't enough adjectives, or enough space on a book jacket, for me to praise Farley Mowat enough."
"Mowat's books have...defined the Canadian wilderness for readers all over the world -- the landscape, the isolation, the weather, animal and native life -- with a heightened sense of reality no other writer has achieved over the last six decades."
"Douglas & McIntyre have reissued 13 of Mowat's 'most cherished titles' in paperback, including And No Birds Sang, a book that clearly shows why Mowat is such an outstanding writer. His descriptions of the Italian countryside, combatants, battles and local civilians caught up in the maelstrom of war are highly evocative and create an instant and vivid image of his experiences in the reader’s mind."
"I admit, sheepishly, that I have never read any of Farley Mowat's novels. Until last week, that is, when I gobbled up two of his books, republished by Douglas & McIntyre: A Whale for the Killing and And No Birds Sang...I now understand the regard for Mowat's superb story-telling and dramatic prose...Luckily D&M has rescued Mowat's library...and we can newly appreciate him. Or introduce him to our children."