As I mentioned in my first post on this theme, British bookshops are awash with fiction from the US, not so much from its neighbour. A shame, as I often enjoy Canadian writing when I do come across it. Here are five more favourites, four with links to my reviews, beginning with one by an 
Three narrative strands run through Mary Lawson’s A Town Called Solace whose eponymous town is in the isolated Canadian north. Eight-year-old Clara is fretting about her teenage sister who’s taken off without telling her parents where she’s going. Her neighbour, Mrs Orchard, who has a great affection for the little girl, has been taken to hospital, asking Clara to look after her beloved cat. Then a stranger turns up, walking around Mrs Orchard’s house as if he owns it. Liam is fleeing a broken marriage, puzzled at the generous gift of a house, a generosity which leads back to a past when he meant a great deal to the Orchards and they to him. There’s much sadness and more than a little darkness in this enjoyable, immersive novel but it left me feeling hopeful for these characters I’d come to care for.
Right from the start of Sarah Leipciger’s debut, The Mountain Can Wait, we know that Curtis Berry has knocked down a 
Annabel Lyon’s Consent brings two very different women together: Sara watched her mother coping with the special needs of her sister, struggling after their father died suddenly, while Saskia grew up in the shadow of her beautiful, bipolar twin. When, Saskia discovers the provocative text which precipitated her twin’s accident, she begins to investigate who sent it leading her to Sara, both struggling with loss, grief and self-blame. Lyon’s novel is a sophisticated, thought-provoking exploration of the meaning of consent wrapped up in a smart piece of suspenseful storytelling.
Entirely different from the preceding four, Fugitive Pieces author Anne Michaels’s Held is her third novel making three in almost three decades, an indication of the care and thought with which she approaches her craft. It opens with a wounded man, slipping in and out of consciousness on a battlefield in France in 1917, and ends in the Gulf of Finland where a spark of attraction is both made and remembered. Made up of a series of gorgeously poetic vignettes unfolding a family’s history over more than a century, Michaels’s narrative explores themes of war, love, loss, memory and connection. An extraordinary piece of fiction, and a hugely affecting one, it demands a great deal of thought and concentration from its readers but more than repays them.
Any novels by Canadian writers you’d particularly recommend, preferably available in the UK?
If you’d like to explore more posts like this, you can find them here. My first five Canadian novels are here.
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I know and have much enjoyed Numbers One and Five on this list. Consent looks as if it might make a sort of pairing with I Made You Up Inside My Head, about a very different form of consent. I’ve just finished the latter by the way – thanks so much for putting it in my way.
You’re welcome as ever, and I’m delighted to hear you enjoyed it. I see what you mean about the issue of consent. I find it particularly interesting with writers and their material.
Well, it IS a difficult one. Every author, however indirectly, must surely draw on tales they’ve witnessed at one level or another to inform their plots.
Indeed – even if they’re not aware of it.
There’s quite a few Canadian authors who are my auto reads.
Kaylea Cross, Toni Anderson, Eve Langlais, Kelley Armstrong, Vivian Arend
Gill
I’ve come across Armstrong but not the rest so will check them out. Thank you!
I LOVED Consent and have another of Lyon’s on my 2026 reading list. Stargazer is also on my TBR! I agree that it’s a shame we often don’t have access to Canadian (and Australian/NZ) fiction.
It’s frustrating, isn’t it. Must be something to do with rights sales/ownership given their are no translation costs (except with French Canadian fiction). I read and enjoyed another Petrou recently – The Rayburn Affair which you might have seen on NetGalley.
I also loved Held (although not as much as Fugitive Pieces) and Stargazer appeals.
It’s a beautiful piece of writing , isn’t it. I think you’d enjoy Stargazer.
I’ve never read Mary Lawson, but know she is much loved. The Lyon is on my shelves. Obviously I’d add Patrick DeWitt, Emily St John Mandel and Denis Theriault.
Thanks for the reminder of those three! Highly recommend Lawson. I read her Winter in Solace (due in Nov) recently. Both that and the new DeWitt feature draft dodgers crossing the border, interestingly.
I have Held in the TBR, I must get to it!
Not an easy read but I’m sure you’d appreciate it.
Great list (and great comments)! I’ve only one of your titles: Michaels’ Held, a few years back when it was shortlisted for the Booker. I thought it a very impressive piece of writing, although some of the family vignettes were far more appealing to me than others. Mary Lawson is super-talented, at least judging from her debut novel Crow Lake, which I read many years ago (I’ve now added Solace to my TBR). The only addition I can think of to the great list of Canadian writers suggested by you & your commenters is Miriam Toewes. Although I haven’t read her recently, I loved her All My Puny Sorrows.
Oh, she’s a brilliant addition. I read her memoir last year which made clear how much she draws on her own complicated family in her fiction.
If you enjoy A Town Called Solace, you might like to know Lawson has a new one set in the town published here in November.
Thanks for great selection here. I haven’t heard of any of them, apart from Michaels. I read her book Fugitive Pieces some months back. A truly memorable work. I still have to read Held.
You’re welcome, Lucy. I found Held beautiful and thought provoking. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.
Good work! Held interests me.
Thank you. It’s a fine novel. I’d like to have seen it win the Booker.
Mary Lawson truly one of the greats! I haven’t read the others, though love Canadian literature so definitely taking note. (One of my favourite books this year was Canadian, though not a novel – a collection of essays called Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart.)
I loved A Town Called Solace. The forthcoming Winter in Solace is a treat, too. Thanks for the Urquhart tip. Adding it to my list!
One that comes to mind is The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey although I think she’s written others.
That looks good, Cathy. Adding it to my list. Thanks!
Great selections! I might recommend Greenwood by Michael Christie, Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill, and (my personal favourite) In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje. I’m biased as a Canadian but I do think we have a really rich literary environment and a lot of stand-out authors.
That’s great! Thank you, Karissa. Obviously, the big names are published here but I’ve often seen Canadian books reviewed I’d love to read but can’t get my hands on. Same with Australian and New Zealand writers. It’s frustrating.
You’re welcome! Similar here for Australian and NZ authors and sometimes it can even be hard for us to find UK authors.
Thanks for the great list of books to keep in mind. One Canadian author I would add to the mix is Madeleine Thien. Her book Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the ScotiaBank Giller Prize in Canada. It is an excellent book and well worth the read.
That’s one I know is available in the UK. Adding it to my list. Thanks, Randall.