Must Read Books by Canadian Authors
Okay, I admit: this display is absolutely the result of my recent trip to Quebec City. It was my first time to Canada, but it won't be my last: I fell in love with the people, the history, and the FOOD! In an effort to extend the vacation vibes a little longer, I pulled together a list of some must read titles written by Canadian authors. This list represents fiction, but there are some amazing nonfiction options out there as well. Check with the folks at Reference if you're looking for some of those titles. Meanwhile, upstairs in the display area, look for some of these excellent reads:
Emily St. John Mandel is a must read author for me. She is a Canadian novelist and essayist. She has written six novels, including "Station Eleven," "The Glass Hotel," and "Sea of Tranquility"--a novel of "art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from an island off Vancouver in 1912 to a dark colony of the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and planets." "Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core. Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him. When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe." This novel is an excellent example of speculative fiction, and one of my favorite things about Mandel's writing is that characters from previous novels are woven into the current one.
"Five Little Indians" by Michelle Good focuses on the Canadian residential schools. "Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn't want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission. Fueled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can't stop running and moves restlessly from job to job - through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps - trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew. With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward."
"This Is How You Lose the Time War" is cowritten by Max Gladstone, an American author, and Amal El-Mohtar, a Canadian poet and author. It's described as "part epistolary romance, part mind-blowing science fiction adventure." "Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandment finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win. That's how war works, right?" Agents Red and Blue travel back and forth through time, with Red's letters written entirely by Gladstone, and Blue's written entirely by El-Mohtar.
"The Push" by Ashley Audrain is a Good Morning American Book Club pick. This is the debut novel by a Canadian writer. "Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had. But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter--she doesn't behave like most children do. Or is it all in Blythe's head? Her husband, Fox, says she's imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well. Then their son Sam is born--and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she'd always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth." This title is perfect for fans of "Verity" and "We Need to talk about Kevin."
If you can take a little road trip to Canada, I highly recommend it! If not, maybe you can experience the joys of this country through fiction. You'll find these and lots of other titles in our "Must Read Books by Canadian Authors" display. For additional title suggestions, see the lists below:
