In this powerful, shocking and highly absorbing new work, Anne Cameron picks up a thread from her prize-winning novel Dreamspeaker, in which an eleven-year-old abuse survivor and runaway named Peter Baxter is taken from his adopted family - two reclusive Native elders - only to be destroyed by the child welfare system that supposedly exists to prot …

From "surviving ground zero in the nuclear family," to "feeling fear at the Fall Fair," to "quelling a taste for champagne on a tap-water budget," Gordon Kirkland writes about survival - survival in the '90s, that is.

Looking back, Kirkland acknowledges his life has always been filled with laughter. He comes from a family who was like "Monty Python …

The illegal drug trade in BC's Lower Mainland is a ruthless business. Danger is extreme, stakes are high, human lives are expendable. In this white-knuckled crime thriller set in the thick of drug dealing and organized crime, the action gets underway with a murder, followed by more murders and suicide. In the course of the story, a sophisticated yo …

In these Red Cross memoirs, some 30 women tell their stories of volunteer work with the Canadian Red Cross Corps in overseas postings during World War Two and the Korean War. These dramatic narratives take us across oceans infested with enemy submarines to witness Canadian women on duty in the U.K., in Europe and in Asia.

The volunteers shouldered c …

Joan Givner engages the heart and mind in this refreshing and readable collection of short stories and essays. Nineteen pieces demonstrate, with the author's trademark acuity, how biography — and autobiography — finds its way into fiction.

Implicitly feminist, Givner's compassionate yet unflinching eye vividly renders each secret pain and joy of …

It is the story of a hockey-mad ten-year-old incapable of dealing with the recent, bitter separation of his parents. The target of his frustration becomes none other than hockey legend Ken Dryden -- greatest goaltender in the history of the world -- who, after three brilliant seasons, has suddenly and inexplicably abandoned the boy's favourite team …

Once Upon an Elephant is a contemporary tale of Hindu deity Ganesh and what happens when worlds, cultures, and stories collide.

A whimsical, contemporary retelling of the creation story of Ganesh--the elephant-headed Hindu deity--Once Upon an Elephant is rife with humour and political satire.

When the police find unusual boy parts--a young man's hea …

Bad Jobs is an anthology of tales--both humorous and tragic--about the worst jobs people have ever held.
This collection of stories, comics, and photographs depict, in gory true-life detail, examples of bad jobs. We all shudder at the thought of our own worst jobs-waiter, cashier, parking lot attendant-but these take the cake, demonstrating just …

Contra/Diction is an anthology of gay men's fiction to re-establish the queer in queer.
The book is a gay men's fiction anthology that represents the plurality of gay identity; an attempt to show that not all gay men "drive to Ikea, go to the gym, and buy new ties for their management-level positions before taking in the latest stage hit," as sug …

Janice MacDonald's profusely illustrated chapter book tells the story of a most unusual Hallowe'en. Featured are Annalise the Witch, Ernie the Ghost and Milton the Skeleton - who live in their haunted house. When the three friends decide to make costumes and join the trick-or-treaters on the darkened streets in search of fun, excitement and treats, …

This book is a photo journal of the special relationship between the horse and the Okanagan people. Included are stories from Okanagan oral tradition, Okanagan Elders' statements, and stories about the people and events depicted in the photographs.Photographs date from the late 1800s to the 1990s; most date from the first half of the twentieth cent …

This important and timely book is a balance of the most gruesome elements of assimilation: church-run schools, the child welfare system, survivors of sexual abuse, and Foetal Alcohol Syndrome counter-balanced against heroic stories of children who survived, fought back, and found their way home.

Harrrowing stories are presented wherever possible i …

Throughout the world, the cowboy is an instantly recognized symbol of the North American West. Legends of Our Times breaks the stereotype of “cowboys and Indians” to show an almost unknown side of the West. It tells the story of some of the first cowboys – Native peoples of the northern Plains and Plateau.

Through stories, poetry, art, and re …

Over a whole bunch of decades, Ted “Chilco” Choate has spun a full quota of trail guide yarns. Along the way he also learned to fabricate a line or two that would help get him out of a jam. With that in mind it seems fitting that Chilco offers his autobiography as “being more than 90 percent true.”

A seasoned big-game guide and outfitter, C …

Hot & Bothered, together with Quickies, are hot his-and-her follow-ups to the highly successful Queer View Mirror 1 and 2 books of queer "short short" fiction. Hot & Bothered includes work by 69 women from the US, Canada and elsewhere-stories about danger, romance, humor, and of course, hot sex. From a woman in love with Marge Simpson (asking the …

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When two thousand British bank clerks, butchers, housewives, saleswomen, remittance men and ex-Boer War soldiers followed the charismatic but inept Anglican minister, Isaac Barr, to the Canadian prairies in 1903 their rallying cry was ""Canada for the British.""

Despite the Canadian governmentÌs expectations and BarrÌs assurances, however, very f …

Both the mountains and northern forests of British Columbia are magical kingdoms shaped by cold and snow. They also form the landscape that covers most of the province and that offers countless spectacular destinations for campers, hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts. Adapted and expanded from sections of the best-selling British Columbia: A Natur …

In this illuminating and theoretically sophisticated study of indigenous oral narratives, Julie Cruikshank moves beyond the text to explore the social power and significance of storytelling. Circumpolar Native peoples today experience strikingly different and often competing systems of narrative and knowledge. These systems include more traditional …

Winner, 20th annual 3-Day Novel-Writing Contest

The Underwood is a poignant tale of a parentless twenty-one-year-old pianist who lands the job of lounge entertainer in a once glorious and elegant establishment. Enter the young Foster Lutz, and the hotel - including the lives of its inhabitants - is set for a spell of splendour and rejuvenation.

A los …

From the author of Stupid Crimes, Krekshuns and Stand in Hell come more fictional wanderings. Gas Tank & Other Stories casts disparate characters into tumultuous scenes of moral terror, testing their courage, energy, and capacity to endure.

Praise for Gas Tank & Other Stories:

"Gas Tank & Other Stories isn't just another work of gritty realism or a c …

Beyond the Northern Lights is a story about the attractions of an outdoor life and how they formed the driving force for my youthful ambitions, culminating in a career as a guardian of the forests and its animal inhabitants. It is also a tribute to things that no longer exist except in my memory - the Calgary of my youth and a simpler, more innocen …

The story of a woman (her name is never given), sent away from her family by her brother, the Bishop, after she is found exploring her sexuality at age seventeen. In a series of twenty-four “snapshots,” That Woman is a devastating Judeo-Christian allegory where voyeurism, fantasy, masturbation, seduction, violence and loss are revealed in fugue …

Guillermo Verdecchia is primarily known for his award-winning plays; Citizen Suárez is his first book of short stories, and it is a remarkable debut.
These stories take on the quintessential issues forced upon a generation betrayed by their citizenship—a betrayal the more profound because it subsists primarily in the global death of the nation-s …

Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth is the emotional story of a woman’s struggle to acknowledge her birth family. Grace, a Native girl adopted by a White family, is asked by her birth sister to return to the Reserve for their mother’s funeral. Afraid of opening old wounds, Grace must find a place where the culture of her past can feed the t …

The Colour of Water is the story of a complicated family trying to hold itself together across the generations in the harsh, stunning Kootenay climate.

Sparked by a trip 'home' decades later, Paul Jones begins to remember growing up on the Pembina River, just west of Edmonton. The result is Pembina Country -- a gentle but perceptive look at what it was like to grow up on a hard scrabble farm in the 1930s dust bowl. His finely crafted story recreates the delights and hardships of childhood, no matt …

A young brother and sister in the village of Sliammon must go out after dark to fetch their grandmother, and even though they are good children, they are caught by The One Who Takes Bad Children. It is up to the brother and sister to free themselves and all the other children by doing what they have been taught: stay calm, pay attention, and use ev …

How I Joined Humanity at Last, David Zieroth's fifth book of poems, explores the mid-life road to renewal and tells the story of one man's journey toward compassion.

Zieroth's work delves deeply into the issues that affect all of us, from relationships between children and parents and "the old blood turbulence/ of families, tribes," to the day-to-d …

With unique insight and straightforward prose, Wingwalkers tells the saga of Canada's other airline, a scrappy western mongrel that, through eight decades and numerous name changes--Canadian Airways, Queen Charlotte Airlines, CP Air, PWA, Wardair and Canadian Airlines International--transformed itself from a bush flying and mining operation into an …

Where land meets sea, strange things happen, and most of them end up as stories. Like new driftlogs on a gravel beach, nine of the best are gathered here in issue number eighteen of the bestselling Raincoast Chronicles series. From a study of log barging on the BC coast to a controversial essay on who really shelled the Cape Estevan lighthouse in 1 …

Elephant Crossing. Houdini Needles. Miniskirt, Tickletoeteaser Tower, and Why Not Mountain. These are just some of the many names of places, rivers, mountains, and lakes that you will come across in the newest edition of British Columbia Place Names. This classic which, in its various editions, has sold over 29,000 copies, covers about 2,500 geogra …

The modern tales in Stories to Hide From Your Mother provide directions for conduct in a difficult world, filled with hysterical wedding parties, abusive lovers, and judgmental mothers. In Stories to Hide From Your Mother, the body plays a central role--a site of lurid spectacle and misplaced lust; and the various characters--a woman who obsesses …

Otto Landauer was a modest man. He was proud of Vancouver, felt strongly that his photographs recorded the continuum of the history of the city and he had an archivist’s determination that the photos he produced with such loving care, like those of his predecessor, Leonard Frank, should be preserved for posterity. But it never would have occurred …

As Canadians, we remember the stories told to us in high-school history class as condensed images of the past--the glorious Mountie, the fearsome Native, the Last Spike. National Dreams is an incisive study of the most persistent icons and stories in Canadian history, and how they inform our sense of national identity: the fundamental beliefs that …

This is Ellen White's sequel to Kwulasulwut: Stories from the Coast Salish. The new volume features four more freshly written and translated English versions of traditional Salish legends adapted for children.

"Wuzz is a place not far from here. It's like here. Almost." Thus begins Willobe of Wuzz, the coming-of-age story of a dragon like no other-a dragon who uses his fire power to bake rather than burn, and who'd rather paint pictures than fight with knights. When Willobe wins the friendship of Princess Emily the Resourceful, a major flare-up with his …

A unique and powerful portrait of referendum and post-referendum Montreal. Published in Quebec in 1996, Aurora Montrealis shot to the top of the best-seller lists and confirmed Monique Proulx's position as one of the top Quebec fiction writers of her generation.

In all of these stories -- about disintegrating relationships, yearning housewives, sur …

This is a story of two generations who fell in love with the Yukon and Northwestern B.C., in particular a piece of floral paradise at the end of Tagish Lake known as Ben-My-Chree. Klondike Paradise takes readers back in time to the Klondike gold rush, and follows a young couple from england as they get involved with sternwheeler riverboat construct …

A much-loved Canadian classic, Pauline Johnson's Legends of Vancouver was first published in 1911 and has been in print ever since. Through her poetic, romantic retelling of these Native legends, Pauline Johnson takes the reader back to a time long ago, before the city of Vancouver was built, when the land belonged to the Squamish people. These leg …

These stories by Jeff Lederman, who operates the Island Wildlife Natural Care Centre on Salt Spring Island, illustrate the challenges faced by the people who work to save wildlife. The Centre is a registered charity dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned wild animals. Lederman's recollections of some of the animals …

In 1995, Peter Johnson went looking for a rare set of petroglyphs located on the outer coast of Vancouver Island near an abandoned whaling village. Encouraged by archival research that yielded court records, 90-year-old correspondence and a tantalizing 1926 newspaper article, Peter sought to tie these glyphs to the 1869 wreck of the trading barque …

In this fascinating true story, Dyan Grant-Francis describes her life as a “reluctant” psychic, from childhood experiences she tried to ignore, to the gradual acceptance of her unique gifts.

From adventures in the High Arctic to ground- breaking medical research, this remarkable account takes place in a world that lies between science and metap …

Robert (Bob) Jones has had the pleasure of fishing Canada from coast to coast, and around the world. Warped Rods and Squeaky Reels tells of many funny fishing situations that have happened to him or one of his many friends and fishing companions. In Chapter Two, the author talks about his many memories and thoughts of fishing, Chapter Three deals w …

Like other young dreamers, Katie and Maurice Cloughley bought a boat and set off around the world. They met while taking sailing lessons in the west of England and after getting married, they worked for six years in northern Canada, earning the money for their ideal boat. When they found her, they renamed her Nanook of the North, planned for a five …

Scalpels and Buggywhips tells the incredible story of the medical pioneers of Central BC. These medical giants treated everything from scurvy to bear bites. They delivered babies and performed surgeries. Their endurance and courage was surpassed only by that of their wives. Eldon Lee tells of Horace Cooper Wrinch, the missionary doctor of Hazelton; …

Before he passed away, the Haida artist Bill Reid was internationally renowned for his totem poles and other large pieces, as well as for his work on a small scale in silver and gold. His masterpiece, The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, is a bronze canoe six metres (20 feet) long, filled to overflowing with the creatures of Haida mythology. Two copies of th …

Robert James Challenger uses the form of parables to teach children important values. The observations of Grandmother and other family members interpret the actions of nature's creatures in a variety of circumstances. His simple, direct stories reflect a philosophy widely embraced—respect for our environment and understanding of all creeds, races …