Canadian Fiction

Cover image for Hled by Anne Michaels

Held by Anne Michaels: ‘Who can say what happens when we are remembered?’

A copyediting friend alerted me to Canadian poet Anne Michaels’ Held, her first novel since The Winter Vault was published back in 2010, urging me to read it. Michaels is the author of Fugitive Pieces which made a deep impression on me when I read it many years ago. Held is her third novel, making

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Cover image for Stargazer by Laurie Petrou

Stargazer by Laurie Petrou: ’There were so many ways a story could go’  

It was the theme of female friendship that drew me to Canadian author Laurie Petrou’s Stargazer. I was slightly dismayed to discover that it was published under a crime imprint but while there is a crime Petrou’s novel is a world away from the kind of police procedural I’m happy to watch on TV. Set

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Cover image for Fight Night by Miriam Toews

Fight Night by Miriam Toews: ‘That’s patriarchy, Swiv, make a note’  

Given that it features a child narrator, I was a wee bit wary of Miriam Toews’ Fight Night despite having enjoyed her previous novels. It’s such a difficult trick to pull off, painfully clunky if mishandled. Toews’ new novel takes the form of a letter written by nine-year-old Swiv to her father who her grandmother

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Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall: ‘There will always be a need’  

The premise of Heather Marshall’s Looking for Jane immediately appealed to me: the chance discovery of a misdelivered letter sets the woman who stumbled upon it on a quest to find the addressee, long since gone elsewhere. Marshall uses this trigger to explore the underground networks that existed in both Canada and the USA providing

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Cover image for Consent by Annabel Lyon

Consent by Annabel Lyon: Who gives permission and who is to blame?

Annabel Lyon’s Consent has been on my radar for some time thanks to Naomi and Marcie’s coverage of the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, always a prize worth keeping an eye on. Both Naomi’s Consumed by Ink and Marcie’s Buried in Print are excellent blogs to follow if you’re interested in Canadian fiction although not nearly

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How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa: ‘They’d had to begin all over again, as if the life they led before didn’t count’

It was that title that attracted me to this collection of stories about immigrants and refugees, cleverly exemplifying the many idiosyncratic challenges English throws at those for whom it’s a second language. Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, Laotian writer Souvankham Thammavongsa is a poet whose own facility for language is demonstrated throughout this

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