Lila, a talented pianist and wife to Rob, has decided she cannot passively follow a score someone else has written—in her musical career and her marriage. As she struggles in her role as daughter to a mother who is dying of cancer, Lila finds that Kevin, a violinist and Lila’s musical partner, helps to keep her love of music in tune through try …

On a Wednesday in July 1961, Jacqueline Burrows begins her day perched on the cool concrete of her front steps, smoking. Jacqueline is the mother of three children, including her sweet, difficult daughter, Sylvie. It's only 7:00 AM, but Jacqueline's children are awake and tearing through the neighborhood.

In a story that deals with the extraordinar …

From Franz Boas to Alice Munro: welcome to an unprecedented panorama of the most significant authors and books of British Columbia culled from Alan Twigg's unrivalled knowledge of more than two centuries of B.C. literary history. The Essentials is the new bible of who wrote what, and why, in B.C., produced with the cooperation of Simon Fraser Unive …

There is an epidemic of violence against women in Canada and the world. For many women physical and sexual assault, or the threat of such violence, is a daily reality. Walk Myself Home is an anthology of poetry, fiction, nonfiction and oral interviews on the subject of violence against women including contributions by Kate Braid, Yasuko Thahn and S …

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 …

"Dany Laferriere is that very rare writer who can make you laugh out loud and also make your soul ache. His work is smart, edgy, and extremely sexy. Heading South is all of these things and more...This book is not only icing on the cake, but is a crucial, essential read." -- Edwidge Danticat, author of Brother, I'm Dying

A steamy exploration of des …

A devilishly intelligent new novel by the internationally bestselling author and Prix Médicis winner.

A black writer from Montreal has found the perfect title for his next book: I Am a Japanese Writer. His publisher gives him an advance on the strength of the title alone. The problem is, he can't seem to write a word of it. He can scarcely summon …

Racial and sexual politics collide in this cult classic that launched Laferrière as one of North America's finest literary provocateurs.

P align=left>Brilliant and tense, Dany Laferrière's first novel, How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired, is as fresh and relevant today as when it was first published in 1985. With raunchy humor and a …

"The stories collected here challenge the orthodoxy of what Canadian fiction can and should do, while continually adding fuel to the eternal flame of literature. These are "tales from tomorrow" in that the future is now -- it's 2010...We need more books like this, Canada. If you're one of those who counts themselves among Darwin's illegitimate chil …

Fishing in B.C.'s wilderness fuels the bonds of friendship between Ehor Boyanowsky and literary giant Ted Hughes.

They met at a poetry reading, but became friends through their shared, and unquenchable, passion for fishing. Against the backdrop of the Dean River, one of the world's greatest steelhead rivers, the two men explored their mutual regard …

Jack Hodgins begins The Invention of the World with a ferry worker waving you aboard a ship that will take you not only to Vancouver Island but into a world of magic. The far west coast of Canada has always been regarded as a "land's end" where the eccentrics of the world come to plot out the last best utopia. Hodgins both invents a world and shows …

"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 …

Winner of a 2011 Independent Publisher Book Award Silver Medal

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make all the difference, like chromosomes, sperm, bugs or an endangered seabird that nests in old-growth forests. But, what’s big or what’s little depends entirely on your perspective. Faye Pearson is a three-and-a-half-foot tall female …

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 …

Set partially in Vancouver, partially on a farm in rural Ontario and partially in West Africa, Sweetness from Ashes is a novel about family in its various forms. When Sheila, Jenny and Chris decide to respect a deceased relative’s wishes, and return the ashes to the family farm, the three begin a journey that takes them from their present-day liv …

'The Skeleton Dance' takes place on th emean, formerly clean streets of Toronto before the century ticked over into the new millenium. The story follows Robert Walker, a musician, and his fried, Klin Abrams, a criminal lawyer, as external forces threaten and strain their long-term friendship and lead, eventually, to horrific conequences. The writin …

When Fine Dumas’s notorious transvestite Boudoir is shut down after Expo 67, Céline is condemned to go back to working as a waitress at Le Sélect, attending to the frustrated appetites and exquisite pathos of its exotic clientele. Then a newcomer appears, the gorgeous Gilbert Forget, a musician who is not insensitive to her charms. Céline, a m …

In his first work of fiction since 2004's Standing on Richards, George Bowering, Canada's first Poet Laureate, reminds us why he is one of our country's most interesting writers. In a series of ten stories introduced by archival photographs, Bowering leads us through the glory days of 1960s Vancouver, when the Hotel Vancouver boasted an understreet …

'Kaspoit!' is a novel of our times, told in the language of our times. It's set in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver. The time is now and gangland crime is rampant. Seemingly random murders and takedowns are exploding at a disturbing rate. Criminals are brazen, the cops are jaded, and someone is trying to lay the blame for the disappearance of dozens …

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 …

This bilingual edition is the first English translation of Aquin's ground-breaking novella. Alone in exotic Naples, an impassioned François anticipates the arrival of girlfriend Hélène. Uncertainty and impatience warp his waiting into an obsessive mélange of recollection and speculation. His interior monologue threads its way through a diso …

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""Small Beneath the Sky is one of the most honest books I ever read. How rare such honesty is, and how hard-won, and radical, and beautiful!"" -- Ursula K. Le Guin

""Like her wonderful poetry, Crozier's prose illuminates our world. She is a writer of the first rank."" -- David Adams Richards, author of The Lost Highway

""This intimate and moving mem …

Sammy and Anna Ostrove raised a typical Jewish family in Winnipeg: Marilyn, the older daughter who is a successful lawyer and Teddy, a son who was to be a doctor. Life, of course, had other plans. Marilyn just ended an affair that should have been kept a secret. Teddy, who dropped out of medical school, went on a ten-day Birthright Israel tour whe …

"From the opening 'cast list' that includes such characters as 'Grandad' played by 'My mother's father,' to a narrator who admits, 'Actually, this is not even a story,' because, as s/he/it later declares, 'There is always more than one possible life,' this book keeps you guessing, laughing and dropping your jaw at the weird insights and awesomely d …

Internationally acclaimed as a playwright, screen-writer, comic and sardonic commentator on the endless gaffs, absurdities and the profound and painful misunderstandings that continue to characterize social interactions between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples, Taylor’s stories in

Fearless Warriors

are a full frontal assault on stereotypes o …

For 52 weeks, bill bissett and Carol Malyon met for brunch and conversation at the Golden Griddle in Toronto.
This sustained conversational encounter between Carol Malyon, who writes within the objective bounds of standard English usage, and bill bissett, one of contemporary writing’s most exotic practitioners, working with the visual forms of l …

Garry Thomas Morse deploys his prodigious classical repertoire to compose the edgy new voices that reflect the cultural simultaneity of our everyday—a transnational, ahistoric cosmopolitanism: an idealized Helen is confounded by Molly Bloom’s monologue from Joyce’s Ulysses; a Dostoyevskian character parodies the libidinal excesses of William …

"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 …

"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 words the dark legacy of the residential school system and its impact on individuals, families and communities.

James Nathan and Jake Noland have been best friends for life …

A powerful, gently surreal tale of a community at the edge of the modern world.

On the fringes of a small town in the Laurentians lives a community of misfits. There's Lila, the landlady of the forest who shoulders a terrible guilt; the young, beautiful and carefree Violette, who bears deep childhood scars, and the boy Jeremy, who whispers his conf …

Finalist, Books in Canada/Amazon.ca First Novel Award

The Beautiful Dead End is a visceral crime thriller that takes the reader on an existential journey to the “other side” and almost back again. In a bizarre, shadowy interzone populated by disturbing characters, our anti-hero confronts the dark secrets of his past, and comes face to face with …

A deeply moving meditation on love and loss, the elusiveness of truth, and the frail and befuddled mind of a deeply haunted man, this gripping, tragic and densely atmospheric novel follows the exploits of one Chris Needham as he attempts to traverse the minefield of his life along the pockmarked moonscape of the British Columbia coast.

Examining the …

In 1980, while working in a warehouse, Lane Courtney takes stock in the family myth that he is a direct descendant of Reginald Fitz Urse, one of the knights who martyred Saint Becket in 1170. His laconic, autobiographical reflections are interwoven with numerous misadventures as he hangs out at the Hotel Isabella and the Warwick's infamous strip lo …

In the literary tradition of Rohinton Mistry and Arundhati Roy, this ambitious debut novel is a moving tale of family, tradition, loss and reconciliation.

Meet Janaki and Mallika, two sisters from a middle-class Brahmin family in Madras, India. Janaki is a musical prodigy, sublimely gifted on the veena, but will soon be eighteen and dreads her aunt …

Longlisted for the ReLit Award (2005)

Foozlers is a 24-hour “Odyssey” that runs a juggernaut through the high- and lowlands of Vancouver. Jerry Lowe is the reluctant driver of a getaway car for two sketchy junkies on the make. A pair of cops spend a shift wobbling on the cusp of total breakdown. The groom-to-be in an Indian arranged marriage see …

A penetrating and unflinching examination of the modern Canadian male, Monument is told through the eyes of Seth Wilhelm, a talented young hockey player whose career is cut short by injury, sending him spiralling out of control. A failed stint at college sets the stage for a second fall from grace, a car accident which claims the life of his new gi …

A powerful coming-of-age story -- edgy, stark, and at times, darkly funny that centers around Larry, a Native teenager trying to cope with a painful past and find his place in a confusing and stressful modern world. Larry is a Dogrib Indian growing up in the small northern town of Fort Simmer. His tongue, his hallucinations and his fantasies are ho …

Since the death of her parents in 1791, Lily McEvoy has lived as a recluse in her isolated Armagh County manor with her two maidservants and Titus, the farmhand who has become her whipping boy. But tonight, the heiress is expecting company. Her guest is Master Anselm, the legendary stone cutter who has transformed the estate’s abandoned salt mine …

It's the mid-1920s and New York is shimmering with the hope and vigour of a younger generation in headlong pursuit of greater freedoms and pleasures. Watching from the sidelines, nineteen-year-old Savanna Mason struggles with the gravity of her perceived failures, finding release and security in the water. Savi believes that her swimming has the po …

Tristan Hughes pieces together memories of childhoods and uncovers the secrets and betrayals of friendship with thoughtful, shocking brilliance.

In a remote Welsh village by the sea, four friends grow up together. Plain but charismatic Del is the ringleader, unstoppable, supremely confident. Neil, shy and stuttering, and Ricky, full of rage and lo …

Charles Olson was quite possibly the greatest, and without question the most influential, of the “New American Poets” published by Grove Press in the mid-twentieth century.
Synthesizing the experimental avant-garde of Black Mountain College with the uncompromising existentialism of the Beat generation, the new structuralism of the San Francisc …

Tennis prodigy Olie Wood was once the toast of professional sports. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He gave prime ministers lessons, dated movie stars, and was rumoured to have been intimate with Madonna. (He'll neither confirm nor deny.) But a bizarre incident at the Australian Open involving a tragically murdered kookaburra, …

Received an honourable mention on the Globe and Mail's top first fiction for 2008

Shari Lapena takes the wit of David Sedaris and the outrageousness of Douglas Coupland to create a dark, hilarious and wildly inventive contemporary comedy about how the past can come back to haunt you. Literally.

In Things Go Flying, Harold Walker is desperately av …

At age 41, Eddy is in existential extremis. He once had an enviable life—a wife he adored, a young son, a cozy suburban house surrounded by carefully planted and sculpted gardens, the luxury to pursue his passion and become a professional horticulturalist. Now he’s separated from his wife, estranged from his son, he’s let his garden grow wil …

Longlisted for the ReLit Award

Editor's Pick, Vancouver Sun

Dirtbags is a novel about reckoning—with one's past, one's choices, and one's expectations for the future. Spider is a scrappy kid growing up in rural B.C., and when a tragic event causes her world to implode she heads to Vancouver for solace, distraction, and experience.

We witness a shift …