WITH A FOREWORD BY ARITHA VAN HERK.

It's the mid 1890s in Kamloops, British Columbia. Two men argue over a bottle of whisky and, in the struggle Frank Spencer, an American outlaw-turned-farmhand, kills Pete Foster, a French-Canadian and fellow farmhand. Enter Caprice: a vision and a brain. Almost six feet tall, with flaming red hair and long legs, …

Rumble Seat is an evocative, poetically-written memoir of artist Helen Piddington's childhood in the Victoria suburb of Esquimalt--and what a childhood it was! The Piddingtons arrived from Quebec in 1924, and settled into a life that in many ways typified well-off Victoria families of the period. Helen's father, Major Arthur Grosvenor Piddington, w …

An Amazon top 100 book of 2009!

A rollicking, comic and ultimately haunting tale of fist-fighting, faith and fine madness

In the 1850s, in the slums of the great city of London, Daniel O’Thunder, a troubled but charismatic former prize-fighter turned evangelist, runs a safe house for those in need of food, shelter, prayer and good counsel. But in L …

The story of Mattie Blaylock, Wyatt Earp's darkest secret, the truth about their relationship, and the famous lawman's lawless behavior. More than a complex and fascinating story.

Children and teenagers experience Canada’s North in a way that adults do not. They have shaped its history, and yet how often are they asked to tell its story? Northern Kids is a collection of tales about the unforgettable young people of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and remote regions of the western provinces. Based on personal int …

In 2003, a mild-mannered historian named Moses Lapinsky jots down notes for a biography. It is to tell the tale of his father Sonny, a famous Jewish- Canadian boxer. As Moses buries himself in his research, he is transported back in time to the pivotal events of his father’s life. So begins the first of the five sections of the novel, each narrat …

In 2003, a mild-mannered historian named Moses Lapinsky jots down notes for a biography. It is to tell the tale of his father Sonny, a famous Jewish- Canadian boxer. As Moses buries himself in his research, he is transported back in time to the pivotal events of his father’s life. So begins the first of the five sections of the novel, each narrat …

Mary Fisher has not had an easy life. Forced into a residential institute after the death of her mother, she and her siblings suffer appalling abuse and neglect. While many around her languish, Mary grows stronger. A precocious child, Mary matures into a resilient woman with a kind heart and quick smile that endears her to everyone she meets and tw …

Bronc Busters and Hay Sloops tells the story of ranching in the West from the beginning of the Great War until 1960. Cowboy soldiers, bronc busters, First Nations, upper-crust Englishmen and the strong, capable women of ranching country . . . theirs are the stories told in this book. Some of these characters are larger than life, such as:

• Joe Cou …

Surveyor, cartographer, fur trader, adventurer, naturalist and entrepreneur, David Thompson is now recognized as one of the greatest explorers and geographers of all time. By 1812, he had surveyed almost four million square kilometres of the North American wilderness and become the first European to navigate the entire length of the Columbia River. …

The award-winning Western epic by "one of Canada's greatest living writers" (David Adams Richards) Lightning takes up where Fred Stenson's Giller-nominated and much-honoured novel, The Trade, left off.

It is 1881, and the fur trade has been forced to make room for another economy. Seven thousand cattle are crossing the border from Montana into new …

Walter B. Cheadle’s diary tells his incredible story of travelling with Lord Milton, as they journeyed along the uncharted Yellowhead route in 1862–63. A miraculously successful expedition, the men traversed the continent, making their way from Quebec, through Saskatchewan, Alberta, up the Athabasca River, risking their lives opening the trails …

The Hudson's Bay Company is about to exercise its uncontested monopoly over the lands drained by Hudson Bay. The first step is to find a new source of beaver pelts and profits, and the only hope lies in the unmapped territory held by the Blackfoot-speaking Indian tribes. The new governor mounts an expedition into the heart of this unknown land, a j …

"A novel of profound intelligence and wit, deftly weaving history and myth, male and female, East and West, agony and splendour. In the Fabled East is a stunning book." -- Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean

"A sublime and often hilarious travel adventure." -- TORO Magazine

From one of Canada's best young voices, comes a sweeping literary adventu …

A murder, a tryst, a mysterious child. A Victoria aristocrat who obsesses over her Churchill relatives. A repressive Welsh mother with a royalty fixation. A once-carefree Hesquiat girl from Nootka Sound. A dashing Icelandic philanderer. And quiet, steady Julia Godolphin, trying to rise above it all. The lost novel of Norma Macmillan, the Vancouver …

In the Fabled East, from one of Canada's best young voices, comes a sweeping literary adventure set against the backdrop of French Indochina Paris, 1909: Adélie Tremier, a young widow suffering the final stages of tuberculosis, flees for French-occupied Indochina, through the lush forests of Laos, to seek out a fabled spring of immortality that mi …

This is a history of British Columbia’s island children, told in their voices, from their perspectives. Composed of twenty-two stories, Island Kids is a snapshot of a period and place in time. The topics range from quintessentially coastal experiences, like a day at the beach, to stories that deal with serious issues, such as BC’s history of re …

"It is Anna Porter's consummate art as a storyteller that makes this true tale of how a group of Hungarian Jews escaped the Holocaust so compelling. This is a must read that must become a must-see movie." -- Peter C. Newman, author and Holocaust escapee

In summer 1944, Rezso Kasztner met with Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Holocaust, in Budapest. …

In 1903, eighteen years after leading the Métis Army against the Northwest Expeditionary Force and the Northwest Mounted Police at Fish Creek, Duck Lake and Batoche, Louis Riel’s Adjutant General Gabriel Dumont dictated his memoirs to a group of friends, one of whom is thought to have written Dumont’s stories out in longhand during that epic …

With The Age of Water Lilies, Theresa Kishkan has written a beautiful novel that travels from the time of colonial wars to the pacifist movement to 1960s Victoria, and shares a unique and delightful relationship between 70-year-old Flora and 7-year-old Tessa.

When Flora Oakden leaves her English home in 1912 for the fledgling community of Walhachin …

Bill Gallaher’s bestselling novel The Journey follows a group of three adventurous Overlanders—two young men and one remarkable woman—as they travel west in 1862, from the Manitoba prairies to the goldfields of the Cariboo.

With his gift for storytelling, Gallaher brings this intriguing era to the page as he vividly recounts the overland trek …

The blossoming of Métis society and culture in the 19th century marked a fascinating and colourful era in western Canadian history. Drawing from journals and contemporary sources, Irene Ternier Gordon presents a vivid account of Métis life in the area that is now Saskatchewan and Alberta. Here are the stories of the masters of the plains—Métis …

"A terrific book that deals with present day concerns."—Thomas King, Governor General's Award–wining author of The Back of the Turtle and The Inconvenient Indian

“To understand this story, it is important to know the People and where they came from and what they went through.” So begins a haunting story that explores with frank and honest wo …

These inspiring true stories illuminate the courage and wisdom of five 19th-century Native leaders and famous Métis who fought against impossible odds to preserve the culture and rights of their people. The visionary Cree leader Big Bear sought peace and a better life, only to be hunted mercilessly and imprisoned unjustly. Jerry Potts, the legenda …

For well over a century, the bright seas of the Sunshine Coast have been attracting visitors to the waterfront resorts, fishing lodges and beaches that rest between Howe Sound and the spectacular Princess Louisa Inlet. These coastal hotspots and communities were settled by a few courageous and daring pioneers whose names are still familiar today: …

Canadian history is full of touching stories of animal companionship, and some relationships between people and their cherished companions are legendary. From Grey Owl and the Beaver People to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's "little angel dogs" to Emily Carr's menagerie, these stories describe notable people and their relationships wit …

Today, many of the historic coal-mining communities of the Rocky Mountains are uninhabited ghost towns. Yet behind the crumbled ruins are tales of perseverance, danger and romance. A devastating mine explosion on Halloween shatters the lives of mining families in Nordegg. The miners of Mountain Park build a hockey rink still celebrated in local lor …

Capitán de Navío Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was the most important Spanish naval officer on the Northwest Coast in the eighteenth century. Serving from 1774 to 1794, he participated in the search for the Northwest Passage and, with George Vancouver, endeavoured to forge a diplomatic resolution to the Nootka Sound controversy between Spa …

Alex MacLean was the inspiration for the title character in Jack London’s bestselling novel The Sea-Wolf. Originally from Cape Breton, MacLean sailed to the Pacific side of North America when he was twenty-one and worked there for thirty-five years as a sailor and sealer. His achievements and escapades while in the Victoria fleet in the 1880s lai …

With an Introduction by Sherrill Grace.

Cowboys and Indians, sometimes one and the same, occupy the rugged landscape of the late nineteenth-century British Columbia interior in George Bowering's Shoot! Meet the McLean Gang — brothers Allan, Charlie, and Archie — and their sidekick Alex Hare. Halfbreeds who grew up bitter outcasts, rejected by bo …

It was 1862 and the Cariboo Gold Rush was in full swing. Sophia Cameron, the Beauty of Barkerville, lay dying of typhoid when her husband, John Cariboo Cameron, made one last promise to his fading young wife. The Promise is a compelling story of a great love and an epic struggle to honour a dying wife's final request: to take her body home to easte …

In the spring of 1884, Jack, an adventurous young man, packs his bags in Victoria, BC, and heads for the prairies, looking for a new life and hoping to get involved in an Indian war. Instead, he lucks into an exciting job in the fur trade and meets and befriends many of the great chiefs of the Cree nation, such as Poundmaker and Big Bear, and ends …

Biography of a significant individual who fought tirelessly for the rights of the Japanese, in British Columbia. This is the story of one remarkable man, Tomekichi Homma, and how his journey led him to become a significant Japanese Canadian pioneer. A gentle and gracious man, from an educated and disciplined family tradition, Tomikichi arrived in B …

With careful research and imagination, author Linda Goyette has created a collection of 25 stories based on the true stories of named children of the past and present.

Too often the youngest Canadians are erased from our historical memory. Rocky Mountain Kids provides firstperson creative non-fiction narratives from the region's children, many of wh …

This is a delightful collection of tales by authors from British Columbia's rugged Cariboo-Chilcotin region, and a few "outsiders."

Joining well-known Cariboo favourites Rich Hobson, Paul St. Pierre and Eric Collier are Barry Broadfoot and his touching tribute to Cariboo legend Fred Lindsay; historian/journalist Bruce Ramsey and his description of …

How the city reporters of the 1950s must have loved Major Matthews. Eminently quotable, forthright and provocative in speech . . . his mere presence at any discussion of a contentious nature would be enough to ensure a wealth of good copy, and a strong, catchy headline as well.

So writes Daphne Sleigh in her compelling biography of controversial ar …

First published in 1980 to high acclaim, Burning Water won a Governor General's Award for fiction that year. A rollicking chronicle of Captain Vancouver's search for the Northwest Passage, the book has over its career been mentioned in recommended lists of postmodern fiction, BC historical fiction, gay fiction, and humour. This gives you some idea …

Longlisted for the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize at the 2008 BC Book Prizes

The colony of British Columbia, 1863. Boston Jim Milroy, a lone trapper and trader with an eidetic memory and a tragic unreckoned past, has become obsessed with reciprocating a seemingly minor kindness from the loquacious Dora Hume, …

When young Lusignan sets off from Ottawa to the First World War with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, he has already survived a tragicomic Catholic childhood and a writing career that has brought him both acclaim and disgrace. Shortly before the men depart for Europe, Lusignan has an encounter with a fellow officer, the aristocratic …

Jane Priddle, a proper young Englishwoman, has lived a sheltered, genteel life. In 1897, she is offered a life-changing opportunity: she will travel to Canada's northwest frontier to search for young Billie Thomm.

Surviving in the gutters of London, England, Billie had acquired the cunning of someone twice his 15 years, but a moment of desperation a …