11 Canadian books to read for Remembrance Day
On Nov. 11, Canadians will mark Remembrance Day. CBC Books has curated this list of 11 books by Canadian authors that give insight into experiences of war, its impact on human life and its lasting reverberations.
Held by Anne Michaels
Weaving in historical figures and events, the mysterious generations-spanning narrative of Held begins on a First World War battlefield near the River Aisne in 1917, where John lies in the falling snow unable to move or feel his legs.
When he returns home to North Yorkshire with life-changing injuries, he reopens his photography business in an effort to move on with his life. The past proves harder to escape than he once thought and John is haunted by ghosts that begin to surface in his photos with messages he struggles to decipher.
Held is on the shortlist for both the 2024 Booker Prize and the 2024 Giller Prize.
Michaels is the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Trillium Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has been shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The Nail That Sticks Out by Suzanne Elki Yoko Hartmann
The Nail That Sticks Out dives into the history of the Japanese Canadian experience in the post-war era. It focuses on Hartmann's mother's life during the Second World War living in an internment camp as a baby and then after, with their community ripped apart and scattered across Canada. The memoir details the triumph of resilience and hope and what it means to be a community.
Suzanne Elki Yoko Hartmann is a Toronto-based author and editor. Her previous work includes the children's book My Father's Nose.
Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham
Book and Dagger brings to light the untold story of the scholars and librarians who joined the Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence agency that predated the CIA, at the start of the Second World War. The book explores how they became spies and shaped the course of the war and cultural institutions.
Elyse Graham is a historian and professor at Stony Brook University. She has written three books: You Talkin' to Me?, A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet and The Republic of Games.
The Secret Keeper by Genevieve Graham
Once inseparable, twin sisters Dot and Dash Wilson's lives are fractured by the Second World War in The Secret Keeper. Dot's skill with puzzles and Morse code lands her in a top-secret spy school, while Dash escapes their family's personal tragedy by training as a pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary. Secrecy oaths threaten to tear the sisters apart, but Dot's loyalties are tested when a close contact goes missing in a Nazi-occupied territory. With all eyes on her operation, Dot uses all her skills to save lives.
Genevieve Graham has written many novels, including The Forgotten Home Child, Letters Across the Sea and Bluebird. She lives and writes in Alberta.
Born to Walk by Alpha Nkuranga
Born to Walk is a memoir that details Alpha Nkuranga's story of resistance and survival. When she was eight, she and her younger brother ran from her grandparents' home in Rwanda in the midst of the civil war. They hid in a swamp until it was safe to leave and ended up joining a group of refugees fleeing to Tanzania. More than ten years later, Nkuranga moved to Canada and now works with women and children who face abuse and homelessness.
Nkuranga works for Women's Crisis Services in Kitchener, Ont. She fled Rwanda as an eight-year-old and lived in refugee camps in Tanzania and Uganda before arriving in Canada in 2010.
The Jazz Club Spy by Roberta Rich
Set in the 1930s, The Jazz Club Spy follows Giddy Brodsky, a Jewish girl who makes a living serving cigarettes at a Manhattan jazz club called Sid's Palace. When she thinks she recognizes the man who burned her Russian village to the ground decades earlier, she agrees to become a spy. Betrayals and intrigue ensue as Giddy finds herself in the middle of a political conspiracy on the eve of the Second World War, and has to choose between justice and forgiveness.
Rich is a former lawyer and the bestselling author of a series of historical novels set in Venice in the 16th century that revolve around the life of a midwife. Her books include The Midwife of Venice, The Harem Midwife and A Trial in Venice.
Dear Da-Lê by Anh Duong
Written for his daughter, Anh Duong tells his previously untold story as a child during the Vietnam War and a refugee in Iran in the late 1970s. Compelled by his daughter's involvement in student protests, in Dear Da-Lê, he decides that it's finally time to share his journey to ending up in Canada in 1980.
Duong is a Calgary-based writer. He was born in Thua-Thien Hue, Vietnam and moved to Iran in the 1970s. He worked for years as an engineer in the petroleum industry after his 1980 arrival to Canada.
No Jews Live Here by John Lorinc
No Jews Live Here explores John Lorinc's Hungarian Jewish family history during the Holocaust, the 1956 Revolution and their eventual move to Toronto. It follows Lorinc's grandmother, grandfather and father's experiences with the Nazis. No Jews Live Here uses historical insight and human stories to chart one family's trajectory across cities and cultures.
Lorinc is an editor and journalist living in Toronto. His work has appeared in publications including the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the Walrus. His books include Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias and The New City. Lorinc received the 2019/2020 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy and the 2022 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.
The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall
The Secret History of Audrey James tells the story of Audrey James, a pianist who is about to graduate from music school. Living with her best friend Ilse Kaplan, she dreads returning home to England and leaving Ilse behind. But as the Nazi party's power increases, Ilse's family is targeted. Her parents and brother disappear and her house is confiscated by Nazi officials. Little do they know, Ilse is hiding in the attic and Audrey becomes their housekeeper in the hopes of saving her friend.
Heather Marshall is a writer from Toronto. She holds two master's degrees in Canadian history and political science and pivoted to writing fiction after working for many years in politics and communications. Her debut novel, Looking for Jane, was named one of Indigo's Top 10 Books of 2022 and Globe & Mail's Top 100 Books of 2022.
Embedded by Catherine Lang
In Embedded, former reporter Catherine Lang preserves the memory of her niece Michelle, a journalist who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. In a book that addresses the horrific consequences of war, dedication to press freedom and the rights of Afghan women and girls, Lang gets closer to Michelle through the process of travelling across the country to talk to her colleagues and friends.
Lang is a writer and former journalist living in Victoria, B.C. Her creative nonfiction book O-Bon in Chimunesu: A Community Remembered won the the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize in 1997.
The War We Won Apart by Nahlah Ayed
The War We Won Apart weaves together the lives of Sonia and Guy d'Artois starting with their early years: Sonia born in England, raised in France and Guy from Montreal. By 1944, both were working for Britain's Special Operations Executive and fell in love as they were undergoing training in Scotland. Days after they got married, the pair was separated, each embarking on dangerous missions as elite agents, then reuniting post-war, immigrating to Quebec and raising six children.
Nahlah Ayed is an award-winning journalist and the current host of CBC Radio's Ideas. She worked as a foreign reporter for two decades, covering conflicts in the Middle East, Russia's annexation of Crimea and Europe's refugee crisis. Her book A Thousand Farewells was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award.
