I was lucky to be on the English-language jury for the Trillium Book Award this year, so I got to read a lot of new books from Ontario. Though we had to pick one winner (The Clarion by Nina Dunic), here’s a selection from my much longer shortlist of new, great books.
River Mumma, by Zalika Reid-Benta is a wonderful supernatural tale set in Toronto’s ravines and neighbourhoods. Somebody should turn this tale into a summer blockbuster film.
Daniel A. Lockhart’s North of Middle Island explores Pelee Island, Lake Erie, and Canada’s most southern border zone. The Indigenous presence has often been erased here, but not in Lockhart’s verse. There are glimpses of the lives of people who live here, with classic rock snippets, forays into local history and lore, and even professional wrestling.
Wait Softly Brother by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer digs into the complications of family life and going home as an adult to revisit one’s own self and past, imagined or not.
In a Land without Dogs the Cats Learn to Bark by Jonathan Garfinkel is a fun and modern spy thriller that brings readers back into the thick of the cold war.
Daddy Lessons by Steacy Easton is a startling and honest queer memoir that also explores the sometimes-hidden geography of Canadian cities, towns, and even the rodeo circuit.
Yara by Tamara Faith Berger is a rather sexy coming-of-age tale that touches on international politics and the often brutality of love, all set in the recent twenty-year-old past serving as a mirror of sorts for today.
I have never read anything like Sleep is Now a Foreign Country: Encounters with the Uncanny by Mike Barnes. A lucid journey into what it’s like to have a mental breakdown. It’s vivid and sometimes terrifying. You will think about it for a long, long time afterwards.
Another work of sometimes funny but often harrowing historical fiction, Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday by Jamaluddin Aram takes us inside the aftermath of the Russian invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.
When first described, Anecdotes by Kathryn Mockler doesn’t sound like it would work, but these rapid-fire vignettes create entire worlds and drama with speed, ease, and a trippy dexterity. Lots of fun and unlike anything else you’ll read this summer.
Two from the Biblioasis Field Notes series are great explorations of the social landscape we live in today: On Community by Casey Plett parses what it means when we use that word, and On Class by Deborah Dundas digs into the thing that underpins everything that we don’t want to talk about.
A Death at the Party by Amy Stuart is a wickedly fun and urbane twist on a whodunit tale. You’ll want to sneak a cigarette while reading too.
