66 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2022
Here are the Canadian novels and short stories we are excited to read in the first half of 2022.
The Maid by Nita Prose
Molly Gray relies on her gran to interpret the world for her, as she struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. When her gran dies, Molly is left to navigate life's complexities all by herself and dives deep into her work as a hotel maid. But her orderly life is upended when she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find him dead. Caught up in a web of deception and suspicion, Molly unites with her friends to find out what really happened to Mr. Black.
When you can read it: Jan. 4, 2022
Nita Prose is an Toronto author and editor. She is currently the Canadian vice president and editorial director for publishing company Simon & Schuster. The Maid is her debut novel.
Deep House by Thomas King
In the latest installment of the DreadfulWater Mystery series, Thumps DreadfulWater has finally found some peace in small-town Chinook. Although his beloved cat is still missing and his relationship with Claire is uncertain, Thumps can at least relax in the comfort of his home. But when he unintentionally discovers a body at the bottom of a canyon, the reluctant investigator becomes entangled in yet another inexplicable mystery and begins to question who he can really trust.
When you can read it: Jan. 18, 2022
Thomas King was the first Indigenous person to deliver a CBC Massey Lecture in 2003. His bestselling books include Truth & Bright Water, The Inconvenient Indian, Green Grass, Running Water, The Back of the Turtle and the DreadfulWater mystery series. He has also written a poetry collection, 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin.
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill
When Marie, the spoiled daughter of a sugar baron living in 19th-century Montreal, meets the brilliant Sadie, the two are immediately inseparable. Marie has bubbly charm and sees the pleasure of the world, whereas Sadie's obsession with darkness is all-consuming. Class and circumstance lead them down different paths, while each woman plays an unexpected role in the events that upend their city.
When We Lost Our Heads is a story that explores gender, power, sex, desire, class and status.
When you can read it: Feb. 1, 2022
Heather O'Neill is a writer and author from Montreal. O'Neill's debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, was a finalist for a Governor General's Literary Award and won Canada Reads 2007. The Montreal-based writer was the first back-to-back finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize: her novel The Girl Who Was Saturday Night was a finalist in 2014 and her short story collection Daydreams of Angels was a finalist in 2015. Her latest books are the novel The Lonely Hearts Hotel and the nonfiction book Wisdom in Nonsense.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
In this collection of stories, Kim Fu turns the familiar on its head to weave tales of new worlds where strange happenings, like a girl growing wings on her legs or toy boxes that control the passage of time, are the ordinary trappings of everyday life. The stories deal with themes of death, technological consequence, guilt and sexuality and unmask the contradictions within humanity.
When you can read it: Feb. 1, 2022
Kim Fu is a Washington-based, Canadian-born fiction writer and poet. She has published two other works of fiction, For Today I Am a Boy and The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, and a book of poetry called How Festive the Ambulance.
Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
Pure Colour follows a woman named Mira, who leaves home for school and meets a person named Annie. Annie has this power over Mira and opens her chest like a portal. Many years later when Mira is older, her father dies and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But when photosynthesis gets boring, Mira must choose whether or not to return to Annie and the human world she has left behind.
Pure Colour is a funny exploration of the wonderful and terrible aspects of being alive.
When you can read it: Feb. 15, 2022
Sheila Heti is a Canadian playwright and author whose work has been translated in over a dozen languages. Her novel Motherhood was on the shortlist for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize. She is also the author of the novels Ticknor and How Should a Person Be? and the self-help book The Chairs Are Where the People Go.
The School of Mirrors by Eva Stachniak
Set against the backdrop of 18th century France on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, King Louis XV houses his mistresses in a mansion. A young woman named Veronique comes to live in the mansion under the guise of employment and quickly falls for the King, without knowing his true identity. When she realizes who he really is, Veronique must contend with the stakes of their affair and what she will have to give up in order to survive.
When you can read it: Feb. 22, 2022
Eva Stachniak is a Polish Canadian historical novelist. Her books include Necessary Lies, which won the 2001 Canada First Novel Award, now known as the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, Empress of the Night, The Chosen Maiden and The Winter Palace.
Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
In 2017, Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a confession in an old stack of mail. Determined to find the recipient, Angela's search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of women operated an underground abortion network in Toronto known by the code name: Jane.
Weaving together the lives of three women, Looking for Jane is a story about the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice and the enduring power of a mother's love.
When you can read it: March 1, 2022
Heather Marshall is a writer from Toronto, Ontario. Before turning her attention to storytelling, Marshall worked in politics and communications. Looking for Jane is her first novel.
Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage
The characters in this short story collection are restless travellers, moving between nation states and states of mind, seeking connection and trying to escape the past. Set in Montreal, Beirut, Tokyo and more, these stories highlight the often random ways our fragile modern identities are constructed, destroyed and reborn.
When you can read it: March 1, 2022
Rawi Hage is a Montreal-based writer. His books include De Niro's Game, which won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2008; Cockroach, which received the Hugh MacLennan Prize for fiction, was defended by Samantha Bee on Canada Reads in 2014, and was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award; Carnival, which was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize; and Beirut Hellfire Society, which was on the shortlist for the the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.
Where the Silver River Ends by Anna Quon
When Joan, a half Chinese English teacher, flees to Budapest for a fresh start, she meets a proud Roma teenager named Milan. Milan helps Joan settle into the city and Joan introduces him to Adriana, who is on a journey to lay the memory of her dead mother to rest. The trio form an unlikely friendship, bound by love and luck.
Where the Silver River Ends is a novel about mixed-race identity, systemic oppression and family reconciliation.
When you can read it: March 1, 2022
Anna Quon is a poet, novelist and writing workshop facilitator. Her first novel, Migration Songs, was shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Award. Quon lives in Dartmouth.
Celia, Misoka, I by Xue Yiwei, translated by Stephen Nashef
Celia, Misoka, I tells the story of a middle-aged Chinese man, who finds himself living in modern-day Montreal all alone after his wife dies. Eventually, the man meets two women by Beaver Lake on Montreal's Mount Royal and their own stories of personal plight connect past to present and West to East.
After coming together, the three begin to examine who they are, where they belong and how to navigate otherness and identity in a globalized world.
When you can read it: March 1, 2022
Xue Yiwei is a bestselling novelist, short story writer and academic. He has published four novels, five collections of short stories plus several works of nonfiction. Shenzheners is his first book to be translated into English. Xue Yiwei lives in Montreal.
Stephen Nashef is a Chinese to English translator. He was awarded a Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship for Chinese poetry translation in 2018. Nashef lives in Beijing.
Aquariums by J.D. Kurtness, translated by Pablo Strauss
When Émeraude, a young marine biologist, joins an extended mission in the Arctic, the world she leaves behind is irrevocably changed. Stories of her ancestors — a young sailor abandoned at birth, a conjuror who mixes potions, a violent young man who hides in the woods to escape an even more violent war and a talented young singer born to a mother who cannot speak — weave their way through and shape Émeraude's life.
When you can read it: March 1, 2022
J.D. Kurtness is a writer and member of the Innu nation. She won the Indigenous Voices Award for most significant work of prose in French in 2018 for her debut novel Of Vengeance. She lives in Montreal.
Pablo Strauss is a translator whose recent books include Of Vengeance by J.D. Kurtness, The Dishwasher by Stéphane Larue and Synapses by Simon Brousseau . Strauss was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation in 2017 for The Longest Year.
Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
It's 1986 and Muna Heddad has left behind a civil war in Lebanon and is living in Montreal. The only work she can find is as a hotline operator at a weight-loss centre where she fields calls from people responding to ads in magazines or on TV. These strangers have so much to say about their challenges, from marriages gone bad to personal inadequacies. Although her life in Canada is filled with invisible barriers, Muna is privy to her clients' deepest secrets.
When you can read it: March 1, 2022
Dimitri Nasrallah is a writer from Lebanon. He is the author of novels The Bleeds, Niko, which won the 2011 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, and Blackbodying, winner of Quebec's McAuslan First Book Prize. Nasrallah lives in Montreal and is the fiction editor at Esplanade Books.
All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie
In this mystical origin story, Sarah Tolmie tells the tale of a Norse trader, who travels from Helmgard through Khazaria to the steppes of Mongolia, where he barters for horses and returns home with a ghostly magic in tow.
All the Horses of Iceland is a novel about the imagined history of how Icelandic horses came to be.
When you can read it: March 1, 2022
Sarah Tolmie is a professor, novelist and poet based in Waterloo, Ont. Her poetry collection The Art of Dying was shortlisted for the 2019 Griffin Poetry Prize. She is also the author of the collection Trio.
Mindful of Murder by Susan Juby
Helen Thorpe is a smart, calm, deeply insightful and newly trained butler. On the day she is supposed to start her career professionally serving one of the world's wealthiest families, she gets a call from her former employer. Her old boss Edna has died, leaving Helen to settle her affairs and execute her particularly detailed will. As Helen carries out the will's instructions, she begins to think that someone had reason to want Edna dead and enlists the help of her fellow butlers to solve the mystery.
When you can read it: March 8, 2022
Susan Juby is a Nanaimo, B.C.-based writer. Her other books include the YA novel Alice, I Think, memoir Nice Recovery and novel Republic of Dirt, which won the Leacock Medal for Humour.
My Volcano by John Elizabeth Stintzi
My Volcano is a pre-apocalyptic tale following a cast of characters from all over the world, each experiencing private and collective eruptions. From a jogger discovering a growing active stratovolcano in Central Park to a boy living through the fall of the Aztec Empire, My Volcano moves through time and space to create a contemporary story about climate change.
When you can read it: March 8, 2022
John Elizabeth Stintzi is a writer from northwestern Ontario, currently based in Kansas City, Mo. Their work Selections From Junebat won the 2019 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and the Malahat Review's 2019 Long Poem Prize. Their poetry collection, Junebat, was published in spring 2020. They are also the author of the novel Vanishing Monuments, which was a finalist for the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. CBC Books named Stintzi a 2020 writer to watch.
Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron
Kamila has a nearly perfect life. While she keeps herself busy by throwing Bollywood movie parties, hanging out with her endless array of friends and running her dog's wildly successful Instagram account, her love life is lagging behind. So Kamila decides to start flirting with a handsome family friend named Rohan and eventually develops a crush. When Kamila's secret nemesis returns to town with an eye for Rohan, things start to unravel and Kamila's life gets turned upside down.
When you can read it: March 8, 2022
Farah Heron is a writer from Toronto. She is also the author of the romantic comedies The Chai Factor and Accidentally Engaged and the YA novel Tahira in Bloom.
Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel
Daughters of the Deer tells the story of a mother named Marie and her daughter Jeanne. Marie, a gifted healer of the Deer Clan, is forced to marry a white soldier from France. The chief begs Marie to accept his proposal, as her people are threatened by disease, starvation and violence. Jeanne, Marie's oldest child, is then caught between worlds. In love with a girl named Josephine, Jeanne is considered unnatural by her father, while her mother's people see her two-spirited nature as a sign of special wisdom.
When you can read it: March 8, 2022
Danielle Daniel is a writer and artist of settler and Indigenous ancestry living in the traditional territory of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (Sudbury, Ont.). Her other books include The Dependent, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Northern Lit Award, and the picture books Once in a Blue Moon and Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox, which won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and was a finalist for the Blue Spruce Award and First Nation Communities Read Awards. She also illustrated the 2018 Marilyn Baillie Award-shortlisted picture book You Hold Me Up, written by Monique Gray Smith.
Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz
Jameela Green Ruins Everything is a satirical novel about a young woman named Jameela Green, whose biggest dream is to see her novel become a bestseller. When that dream doesn't come true, she becomes involved in her local mosque, which inadvertently leads her to infiltrating an international terrorist organization. Jameela Green Ruins Everything explores success, searching for meaning and community, and the failures of American foreign policy.
When you can read it: March 8, 2022
Zarqa Nawaz is a film and TV producer, writer and former broadcaster based in Regina. She is best known for being the creator of the hit CBC comedy series Little Mosque on the Prairie. She is also the author of the memoir Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. Nawaz is also working on a new CBC TV series called Zarqa, which is set to premiere in fall 2022.
Sister Seen, Sister Heard by Kimia Eslah
Farah's ready to move out and become an independent university student, but her first-generation Iranian immigrant parents wish she wouldn't. When they begrudgingly agree to let her move, Farah begins to explore her new exciting life. But after Farah is assaulted on campus, her life changes dramatically.
When you can read it: March 15, 2022
Born in Iran, Kimia Eslah spent her early childhood in New Delhi before immigrating to Toronto with her family. She is a feminist, queer writer and the author of the 2019 novel The Daughter Who Walked Away.
Until the Last of Me by Sylvain Neuvel
For generations, Mia's family has helped shape human history by following the First Rule: Always run, never fight. Now the year is 1968 and Mia is on the cusp of destiny, poised to send the first humans into space. With her adversary at her heels and the future of the planet at stake, obeying the First Rule isn't an option. For the first time in 100 generations, Mia's family will have to stand their ground risking their bloodline and the future of the human race.
When you can read it: March 16, 2022
Sylvain Neuvel is a writer, linguist and translator from Montreal. He is also the author of the novels Sleeping Giants, Waking Gods, Only Human and The Test.
The Circus Train by Amita Parikh
Although the daughter of an extraordinary illusionist, Lena Papadopoulos has never quite found her place within the circus. Her father, Theo, is overprotective and limits her world because she is disabled. When Lena rescues Alexandre, an orphan with a mysterious past, their friendship flourishes over the years and Alexandre trains to join the circus. Eventually, Alexandre and Theo are contracted to perform in a model town for Jews set up by the Nazis and Lena becomes separated from everything she knows, forced to make her own way.
When you can read it: March 22, 2022
Amita Parikh is a writer from Toronto. She works in the tech industry and produces and hosts a podcast dedicated to women in sports. The Circus Train is her first novel.
Bluebird by Genevieve Graham
Bluebird takes place during the First World War and tells the story of a young nurse named Adele who forms a strong bond with Jeremiah, a wounded soldier under her care. Jeremiah returns to the front — but when the war is over, the two cross paths in their hometown of Windsor, Ont., and see it as a second chance. Prohibition brings new danger to the city and it threatens to tear them apart.
When you can read it: April 5, 2022
Graham is a bestselling writer from Nova Scotia who has written several novels that highlight Canadian history. Her other books include At the Mountain's Edge, Letters Across the Sea, Come From Away and The Forgotten Home Child.
I Was the President's Mistress by Miguel Syjuco
Vita Nova, the Philippines' most famous movie star, shares her story for the first time ever in a tell-all memoir. The actress was caught up in a political typhoon after having an affair with the country's most powerful man. From drug wars to a government on the brink, Vita's sensational story is one of a complicated society.
I Was the President's Mistress!! is a novel about love, politics, faith, history, memory and what we know as truth.
When you can read it: April 5, 2022
Miguel Syjuco is a Filipino Canadian writer. His debut novel, Ilustrado, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2010, and the winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize, the Hugh MacLennan Prize, the Palanca Award, and the Filipino Readers' Choice Award.
Sari, Not Sari by Sonya Singh
Manny Dogra is the CEO of a highly successful company that helps people manage their breakups. She's planning her wedding to a handsome architect, while in the midst of grieving the deaths of her parents. Her parents, who were both born in India, wanted Manny to become an "All-American girl," so that's what she did. Knowing next to nothing about her South Asian heritage, Manny meets an irritating client who agrees to give her a crash course in being Indian at his brother's wedding.
When you can read it: April 5, 2022
Sonya Singh is a writer, producer and former entertainment reporter. Sari, Not Sari is her first novel. Singh lives in Toronto.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
From Vancouver Island in 1912 to a colony on the moon 500 years later, Sea of Tranquility is a novel about time travel and metaphysics.
When detective Gaspery-Jacques Roberts is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended — from an exiled son driven mad by beauty and mystery in a Canadian forest to a writer living in a colony on the moon as a pandemic ravages Earth. Through his work, Gaspery has the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
Sea of Tranquility unfurls a story about humanity across centuries and space.
When you can read it: April 5, 2022
Emily St. John Mandel is a bestselling author currently based in New York. Her other novels include The Glass Hotel, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and selected by President Barack Obama as a favourite book of 2020; and Station Eleven, a bestseller adapted for HBO and a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award.
An Unthinkable Thing by Nicole Lundrigan
Eleven-year-old Tommie Ware's life is turned upside down after his aunt is found murdered. Tommie is forced to return to his mother, who works as a live-in housekeeper for the wealthy Henneberry family. While his mother works around the clock, Tommie becomes enmeshed in the secrets and games of the Henneberrys and eventually, a cold-blooded murder.
When you can read it: April 12, 2022
Nicole Lundrigan is the author of eight novels including The Substitute, The Widow Tree and Glass Boys. Her book Hideaway, was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award. Lundrigan lives in Toronto.
My Face in the Light by Martha Schabas
Justine has made acting the centre of her life since she was a teenager. After a disastrous audition and a chance encounter with a stranger, things shift and Justine toys with the idea of leaving behind the life she was expected to want.
My Face in the Light is an exploration of truth and identity. It's the story of a young woman owning up to the lies she has grown to love and figuring out if she can still recognize herself when she finally lets them go.
When you can read it: April 12, 2022
Martha Schabas is a novelist and critic based in Toronto. Her first novel, Various Positions, was shortlisted for an Evergreen Fiction Award. She was the Globe and Mail's dance critic from 2015 to 2020, where she also wrote about theatre and books.
Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey
Watch Out for Her is about a young mother named Sarah who thinks her problems are solved when she hires a young babysitter, Holly, for her six-year-old son. Her son adores Holly and Holly adores Sarah. But when Sarah sees something that she can't unsee, she uproots her family to start over. Her past follows her to this new life, raising paranoid questions of who is watching Sarah now? And what do they want?
When you can read it: April 19, 2022
Samantha M. Bailey is a journalist and editor in Toronto. Her first thriller, Woman on the Edge, was released in 2019.
Night in the World by Sharon English
When their mother dies abruptly, brothers Justin and Oliver each set out to make things right in their own lives. Oliver, a former environmental reporter, sets out to reclaim a beloved home, while Justin, a successful restaurant owner, works to save a home that's falling apart. Intersecting their journey is Gabe, a budding biologist enchanted by the underappreciated beauty of moths.
Night in the World explores the need to end our separations from each other and from nature and how journeys into darkness are sometimes necessary to see through catastrophe.
When you can read it: May 1, 2022
Sharon English is the author of two collections of short stories, Zero Gravity and Uncomfortably Numb. Currently, she is the director of the Writing and Rhetoric Program at Innis College at the University of Toronto.
Wan by Dawn Promislow
Wan tells the story of Jacqueline, a privileged artist in 1970s South Africa. After an anti-apartheid activist comes to hide in her garden house, Jacqueline's carefully constructed life begins to unravel.
When you can read it: May 1, 2022
Dawn Promislow is a writer from Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the author of the collection Jewels and Other Stories, which was longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award in 2011. Her writing has appeared in places like the Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Berfrois, Munyori Literary Journal, StoryTime and Hazlitt. Promislow lives in Toronto.
Face by Jaspreet Singh
When Lila, an Indian-born science journalist, meets a writer named Lucia at a creative writing workshop in Calgary, the two women find their paths entangled. As they work through Lila's story, the women follow the links between a fossil fraud in India, an ice core archive in Canada, the Burgess Shale quarry and a climate change laboratory in Germany. Through their detective work, Lila and Lucia come face to face with ecological grief and today's most fascinating science.
When you can read it: May 3, 2022
Jaspreet Singh is the author of the novels Chef and Helium, the story collection Seventeen Tomatoes and the poetry collection November. His nonfiction has been published in Granta, Brick: A Literary Journal and the New York Times. Singh lives in Calgary.
Noonday Dark by Charles Demers
Noonday Dark is the second instalment of the Doctor Annick Boudreau Mystery series.
When the Vancouver police inform Dr. Boudreau that her patient Danielle is missing and there is a suicide note, Dr. Boudreau is shaken. Danielle, who was being treated for depression, was doing well and just finished a job as a speechwriter for a successful mayoral campaign. Joining forces with Danielle's estranged father, a radical journalist turned right-wing blogger, Dr. Boudreau discovers a city embroiled in politics in her quest to bring Danielle home.
When you can read it: May 8, 2022
Charles Demers is a Juno Award-nominated comedian and author from Vancouver. He is also the author of the crime novels Property Values and Primary Obsessions.
Ezra's Ghosts by Darcy Tamayose
In this collection of fantastical stories, Darcy Tamayose introduces a cast of characters whose lives intersect in a quiet prairie town called Ezra. From a seeker of truth trapped in Ezra after her violent death, to the oldest man in town who came to Canada to escape imperial hardships, the stories in Ezra's Ghosts are linked by language, culture and grief.
When you can read it: May 10, 2022
Darcy Tamayose is a writer and graphic designer from southern Alberta. Her work includes the novel, Odori, which received the Canada-Japan Literary Award, and the YA book, Katie Be Quiet. Tamayose lives in Lethbridge, Alta.
Medusa by Martine Desjardins, translated by Oana Avasilichioaei
Medusa walks with her head down and her face hidden behind her hair to spare others the sight of her deformities. She was driven from her family home and locked up in an institute for young "malformed" girls. The day Medusa finally emerges from her confinement, she sows destruction in her path. But before she can take revenge on those who humiliated her, she'll first have to face the treacherous gaze of her nemesis and her own abominations.
When you can read it: May 10, 2022
Martine Desjardins is a writer and the former assistant editor-in-chief at ELLE Québec. Her first novel, Le cercle de Clara, was published in 1997 and nominated for the Prix littéraires du Québec and the Grand prix des lectrices de ELLE Québec. Desjardins lives in Montreal.
Oana Avasilichioaei is an award-winning poet, performance artist and translator. Her translation work includes the novel The Faerie Devouring by Catherine Lalonde, and two of Bertrand Laverdure's books, Readopolis, for which she won the Governor General's Literary Award for translation, and Neptune Room. Avasilichioaei lives in Montreal.
Help! I'm Alive by Gurjinder Basran
When video footage of Jay's death is shared on social media, a Vancouver community tries to make sense of what happened. The four people closest to Jay — his girlfriend, mother, brother and former best friend — begin to question who they have been and how they should deal with the loss, as feelings of guilt, loneliness and anxiety surface.
Help! I'm Alive explores what happens in the aftermath of a death and how moments can bring us together and drive us apart.
When you can read it: May 10, 2022
Gurjinder Basran is a writer living in Delta, B.C. Her debut novel, Everything Was Goodbye, was the winner of the BC Book Prize and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2011.
God Isn't Here Today by Francine Cunningham
The characters in Francine Cunningham's latest short story collection are driven by desperation and presented with moments of choice. From a woman who discovers she is the last human on earth to a man who goes to God's downtown office in search of advice, these stories flirt with the fantastic and highlight the dualities in human nature.
When you can read it: May 10, 2022
Francine Cunningham is an award-winning Indigenous author, artist and educator from Calgary. Her work includes the book of poems On/Me, which was a finalist for the 2020 Indigenous Voices Awards. Cunningham's writing has appeared in places like The Malahat Review, Joyland Magazine and The Puritan Magazine.
Taobao by Dan K. Woo
In this collection of short stories, Dan K. Woo introduces a fascinating cast of characters from different regions of China, from rural villages to bustling cities. These are stories of young people looking for love, meaning and happiness in a country that is often misunderstood by North America.
When you can read it: May 10, 2022
Dan K. Woo is the author of Learning How to Love China, which won the 2018 Ken Klonsky Award. His writing has appeared in publications such as the South China Morning Post, Quill & Quire, China Daily USA and elsewhere. Woo lives in Toronto.
Mad Honey by Katie Welch
Melissa Makepeace throws herself into running the family farm after her boyfriend, Beck Wise, disappears. When he returns home three months later, Beck has no idea what day it is and he's filled with memories of being part of a bee colony. A series of mysteries begin to unravel and Melissa is left to figure it all out.
When you can read it: May 10, 2022
Katie Welch is an author from Ottawa. Her writing has appeared in EVENT Magazine, Prairie Fire, The Antigonish Review and elsewhere. Mad Honey is her first novel.
Wild Fires by Sophie Jai
Cassandra doesn't know much about her family except for the snippets of stories she has heard over the years. When she gets a call from her sister about her cousin Chevy's death, she must return home to Toronto for the funeral. In Toronto, Cassanda finds her sisters are hiding more than themselves in their rooms and the tension brewing between her mother and aunts has been decades in the making. Sooner or later every secret, unspoken word and painful memory will find its way out into the open.
When you can read it: May 12, 2022
Sophie Jai is a novelist born and raised in Trinidad. She currently lives between Toronto and London, England. Wild Fires is her debut novel.
Prophetess by Baharan Baniahmadi
When seven-year-old Sara witnesses the horrific murder of her sister in the slums of Tehran, she develops a strange allergic reaction to men. Every time a man approaches her, hair covers Sara's face. As strange developments interrupt her life, Sara must learn how to live with her sister's memory in a world that abuses women from a very early age.
When you can read it: May 13, 2022
Baharan Baniahmadi is an actor, author and playwright from Iran. She studied theatre at the Art University of Tehran, has worked with many international directors and has published a play and novel in Iran. Baniahmadi lives in Montreal.
A Kid Called Chatter by Chris Kelly
Orphaned by his parents and raised in institutions, the kid called Chatter attracts dying jackrabbits. As the Great Depression drags on, he must trace a path forward and find a way to survive as death trails relentlessly behind him.
A Kid Called Chatter mingles history, truth, folktale and fiction to explore how humans use stories to confront what can't be explained.
When you can read it: April 15, 2022
Chris Kelly worked as a butcher, bouncer and bartender before turning his attention to writing. He is the author of the novel On Quiet Earth. Kelly lives in Alberta.
Toronto, I Love You by Didier Leclair, translated by Elaine Kennedy
When Raymond Dossougbé moves from Benin to Toronto, he is immediately charmed by the city. But he quickly realizes that although his roommates look like him, they can't relate. Raymond sees them as mentally shackled, stuck in the past and unable and unwilling to adapt. As he finds his bearings in this new world of poverty, extreme wealth and police brutality, Raymond gains a better understanding of himself and those around him.
Toronto, I Love You won the Prix Trillium when it was first published in 2000.
When you can read it: May 15, 2022
Didier Leclair is a Francophone fiction writer, based in Toronto. His work includes This Country of Mine, which was a finalist for the 2019 Toronto Book Awards, and Ce pays qui est le mien, which was shortlisted for the 2004 Governor General's Award for French-language fiction.
Elaine Kennedy is a translator and editor, who focuses on literary translation. She has translated short stories, memoirs and essays. Kennedy lives in Montreal.
A Convergence of Solitudes by Anita Anand
A Convergence of Solitudes follows the lives of two families across the Partition of India, Operation Babylift in Vietnam and two referendums in Quebec. At the centre of the story are Sunil and Hima who leave India to raise a family in Montreal. Their lives become intertwined with Serge Giglio, the nationalistic frontman of Quebecois supergroup Sensibilité, when Sunil and Hima's daughter connects with Serge's adopted daughter.
A Convergence of Solitudes is a story about identity and belonging.
When you can read it: May 17, 2022
Anita Anand is a writer, translator and language teacher from Montreal. She is the author of Swing in the House and Other Stories, which won the 2015 QWF Concordia University First Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2016 Relit Award for Fiction.
Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay
When Andrew Mason's wife, Brie, goes missing while he was on a fishing trip, everyone assumes Andy got away with murder. For a while, Andy hits rock bottom, abandoned by all his friends and using alcohol to cope. The police could never build a strong case against him and eventually, Andy sells the house he shared with Brie and rebuilds his life. Several years later, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Brie shows up at Andy's old house and dark suspicions resurface.
When you can read it: May 17, 2022
Linwood Barclay is an American-Canadian thriller writer, with almost 20 books to his credit. His books include the adult thrillers Broken Promise, A Noise Downstairs, Elevator Pitch and the middle-grade novels Escape and Chase.
The Sisters Sputnik by Terri Favro
In a distant reality where books have disappeared, comic creator Debbie Reynolds Biondi finds herself in bed with an old lover who begs her to tell him a story. Debbie spins a futuristic tale about the Sisters Sputnik and their adventures in alternate realities. From the theft of an evil comic strip in a post-pandemic Toronto to a version of the 1950s where the sisters meet a rising star named Frank Sinatra and his girlfriend, the once-and-future Queen of England.
When you can read it: May 17, 2022
Terri Favro is a Toronto-based comic book writer, essayist and novelist. She is the author of Sputnik's Children, Once Upon A Time In West Toronto and The Proxy Bride.
Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner
Bloomsbury Girls tells the story of Vivien Lowry, Grace Perkins and Evie Stone — three women with a complex web of relationships, goals and dreams — as they interact with famous literary figures. The novel is set in the 1950s world of publishing and the women work in an old-fashioned bookstore, run by men, called Bloomsbury Books. As they juggle their lives, the women work toward a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.
When you can read it: May 17, 2022
Natalie Jenner is the bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society, which was the 2020 Goodreads Choice Award runner-up for historical fiction. Jenner is a former lawyer and independent bookshop owner. She was born in England and now lives in Oakville, Ont.
The Wards by Terry Doyle
The Wards is a novel about a working-class Newfoundland family on the cusp of upheaval. The children are becoming adults, the adults are growing old and the new dog was probably stolen. When an illness forces the family to come together, they must finally address the depths of their dysfunction.
When you can read it: May 20, 2022
Terry Doyle is a writer from Goulds, N.L. He is the author of the short story collection Dig and the novel Union, which won the 2017 Percy Janes First Novel Award.
A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong
In this time-traveling novel, a homicide detective named Mallory finds herself transported 150 years in the past after she is attacked and left unconscious in an alley. Mallory wakes up in the body of housemaid Catriona Thomson, who was also attacked in the same spot in 1869. Mallory must put aside her shock and find a way to catch her murderer, which hopefully leads her back to her modern life before it's too late.
When you can read it: May 31, 2022
Kelley Armstrong is a bestselling author of YA and middle grade books, horror novels and thrillers. Her standalone novels include Aftermath and Missing, but she is best known for her Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising series and her Cainsville and Otherworld series.
Animal Person by Alexander MacLeod
The stories in Alexander MacLeod's latest collection explore the struggle for meaning and connection in an age where many of us feel cut off from so much, including ourselves. From two sisters having a petty argument to a family on the brink of a new life, these stories pick at the complexity of our shared human experience.
When you can read it: April 5, 2022
Alexander MacLeod is a short story writer and academic from Cape Breton and raised in Windsor, Ont. MacLeod's debut short story collection Light Lifting was shortlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Commonwealth Prize. It won the Atlantic Book Award. In 2019, he won an O. Henry Award for his short story Lagomorph. He currently lives in Dartmouth, N.S.
Uncertain Kin by Janice Lynn Mather
In this collection of linked stories, Janice Lynn Mather introduces us to the women and girls of The Bahamas. Searching for identity and belonging during moments of upheaval, these complex characters are intimately familiar. From the responsibilities of parenthood to grief, longing and betrayal, the stories of Uncertain Kin grapple with what it means to be a woman
When you can read it: April 19, 2022
Janice Lynn Mather is a novelist and short story writer born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas, who now lives in Vancouver. Her other books include Learning to Breathe, which was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text.
Buffalo is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel
In this short story collection, Chelsea Vowel explores science fiction tropes through a Métis lens. From a rougarou (shapeshifter) in the 19th century trying to solve a murder in her community to a Métis man who's gored by a radioactive bison and gains super strength, these stories seek to understand the impact of colonization, remove its psychological baggage and recover ancestral traditions.
Buffalo is the New Buffalo explores Indigenous existence and resistance and rewrites our shared history.
When you can read it: April 26, 2022
Chelsea Vowel is a Métis writer and educator whose work focuses on language, gender identity and cultural resurgence. Her other novels include Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada, which addresses stereotypes and assumptions about Indigenous issues and offers insight into the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada. She also contributed to graphic novel, This Place, which was adapted into a 10-episode podcast for CBC Books.
Such Big Dreams by Reema Patel
Such Big Dreams tells the story of Rakhi, a former street child haunted by the memory of a grisly incident that led her to lose her best friend. Rakhi is fiercely intelligent, living and working in a Mumbai slum as an office assistant for Justice for All, a struggling human rights law office. When a fading Bollywood starlet becomes a celebrity ambassador for Justice For All, Rakhi's world expands as she comes face to face with difficult choices and moral compromises.
When you can read it: April 26, 2022
Reema Patel is a writer and lawyer. She has worked in human rights advocacy and in provincial and municipal government. Such Big Dreams is her first novel. Patel lives in Toronto.
Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
When Lily was a child, her mother, Swee Hua, walked away from the family and was never heard from again. After becoming a new mother herself, Lily is obsessed with discovering what happened to Swee Hua. She recalls growing up in a British Columbia mining town where there were only a handful of Asian families and how Swee Hua longed to return to Brunei. Eventually, a clue leads Lily to southeast Asia to find out the truth about her mother.
Dandelion is a novel about family secrets, migration, isolation, motherhood and mental illness.
When you can read it: April 26, 2022
Jamie Chai Yun Liew is a lawyer and law professor based in Ottawa. Dandelion is her first novel and won her the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award from the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop.
The Most Cunning Heart by Catherine Graham
Grieving the loss of her parents, Caitlin Maharg leaves Canada for Northern Ireland to live by the sea and pursue her love of writing poetry. When Caitlin befriends a well-known poet named Andy Evans, their attraction soon leads to an affair.
The Most Cunning Heart is a novel about how a quiet heroine learns to navigate deception, love and loss.
When you can read it: May 1, 2022
Catherine Graham is the author of seven collections of poetry, including the recent Æther: An Out-of-Body Lyric, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Toronto Book Awards. Her debut novel, Quarry, won an Independent Publisher Book Awards gold medal for fiction. Graham lives in Toronto, where she teaches creative writing and leads the Toronto International Festival of Authors Book Club.
This is How We Love by Lisa Moore
This is How We Love is the latest novel from award-winning writer Lisa Moore. The novel is set in St. John's, delves into the complexities of familial relationships — asking questions about what makes a family, how family shapes us and whether we really choose who we love.
When you can read it: May 3, 2022
Lisa Moore is a writer from Newfoundland. Her other books include Caught, February, Alligator, Open and Something for Everyone. She has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize three times: in 2002 for Open, in 2005 for Alligator and in 2013 for Caught. Her novel February won Canada Reads in 2013, when it was defended by comedian Trent McClellan.
Mansions of the Moon by Shyam Selvadurai
Mansions of the Moon traces the life of Siddhartha Gautama, otherwise known as the Buddha, and his marriage to the intelligent and spirited Yasodhara. From their early life together to their crumbling partnership as Siddhartha's spiritual calling takes over, Mansions of the Moon paints a rich portrait of a marriage and illuminates a woman who has remained in the shadows of history.
When you can read it: May 3, 2022
Shyam Selvadurai is an award-winning Sri Lankan Canadian novelist. His books include Funny Boy, which won the 1995 Books in Canada First Novel Award, now known as the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It was also adapted into a film by Indian Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta, which is available on CBC Gem. His other books include The Hungry Ghosts and Swimming in the Monsoon Sea.
Estates Large and Small by Ray Robertson
Phil Cooper finally takes his secondhand bookstore online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the quiet world of cybercommerce has him questioning who he is and what he's doing here. That's when Phil decides to teach himself 2,500 years of Western philosophy and meets an ex-postal worker and fellow book lover who agrees to join him on his quest.
Estates Large and Small is the story of one man's reckoning and the power of books.
When you can read it: May 10, 2022
Ray Robertson is a novelist based in Toronto. His book Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and longlisted for the Charles Taylor Prize for Nonfiction. His other nonfiction books include How to Die and Lives of the Poets (with Guitars).
Mud Lilies by Indra Ramayan
When 14-year-old Chanie Nyrider runs away from her abusive parents, she is drawn into Edmonton's dark underbelly and begins working as a prostitute. After getting arrested, Chanie reluctantly agrees to attend a high school program for troubled youth so that she can maintain her freedom. As she makes strides in the program, she falls for a man named Blue, who becomes violent and Chanie's home life starts to deteriorate.
When you can read it: May 21, 2022
Indra Ramayan is a writer from Edmonton, Alberta. Her work is inspired by authors like Angie Abdou, Heather O'Neill, Joel Thomas Hynes and Richard Wagamese. Mud Lilies is her first novel.
The Ghost of Suzuko by Vincent Brault, translated by Benjamin Hedley
A Montrealer in mourning returns to Tokyo, where he is haunted by the ghost of his dead lover. When a turbulent new love enters his life, he is uncertain whether it will be enough to put him on sure footing or leave him forever on shaky ground.
When you can read it: June 1, 2022
Vincent Brault is the author of three novels. The Ghost of Suzuko is his first novel to be translated into English. Brault lives in Montreal.
Benjamin Hedley is a translator and bookseller from Montreal. He has a B.A. from Concordia University in translation studies and has worked on the short story collection I Never Talk About It. The Ghost of Suzuko is his first full-length translation.
Shimmer by Alex Pugsley
Told in 10 stories, Shimmer follows a series of characters through relationships and across boundaries as they weave into and out of each other's lives. From two movie stars deciding if the affair they're having means they like each other to the sharp-tongued Twyla who agrees to go to therapy, these stories explore social norms, mental health and love.
When you can read it: June 7, 2022
Alex Pugsley is a filmmaker and writer from Nova Scotia. He is also the co-author of the novel Kay Darling and the author of the novel Aubrey McKee.
Remnants by Céline Huyghebaert, translated by Aleshia Jensen
Remnants is an exploration of family relationships and perception. Filled with questionnaires, photographs, dream documentation and dialogue, author Céline Huyghebaert reveals a father-daughter relationship shaped by silence and missed opportunities.
Remnants was the winner of the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for French-language fiction.
When you can read it: June 7, 2022
Céline Huyghebaert is a French-born Canadian writer and artist. She was recently awarded the Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. Huyghebaert lives in Montreal.
Aleshia Jensen is a French to English literary translator. Her recent work includes The League of Super Feminists by Mirion Malle and Prague by Maude Veilleux. Jensen lives in Montreal.
In the Dark We Forget by Sandra SG Wong
When Cleo Li wakes up alone with amnesia beside a mountain highway, she fights to regain her identity. She learns that her parents have disappeared after her mother bought a winning lottery ticket worth $47 million. As her memories resurface and the police uncover more details regarding the disappearance of her parents, Cleo finds herself under increasing suspicion and begins to question her reality.
When you can read it: June 21, 2022
Sandra SG Wong is an up-and-coming Chinese-Canadian crime writer. Her debut novel, Die on Your Feet, was a finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence for Best Crime First Novel.
Nosy Parker by Lesley Crewe
Set in Montreal during the 1967 Expo, the nosy Audrey Parker and her dad have just moved to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Audrey pays attention to every detail, but only one mystery really matters to her. Audrey wants to know who her mother was, how she died and why her father won't talk about it.
Nosy Parker follows Audrey from childhood to adolescence, where she eventually discovers the truth about her mother.
When you can read it: June 30, 2022
Lesley Crewe is the author of several novels including Relative Happiness, The Spoon Steeler and Mary, Mary. She previously worked as a freelance writer and columnist. Originally from Montreal, Crewe now lives in Cape Breton.
Some Maintenance Required by Marie-Renée Lavoie, translated by Arielle Aaronson
It's 1993 and Laurie's final year of school. She works part time at a restaurant and cares for her neglected, potty-mouthed neighbour named Cindy. Laurie devours books and has big dreams, but struggles to keep her car running. As she experiences a budding romance, Laurie's eyes are opened to a more complicated world of class differences and circumstances beyond her control.
Some Maintenance Required is a funny coming-of-age story about taking responsibility and owning your life.
When you can read it: July 5, 2022
Marie-Renée Lavoie is a Canadian writer from Quebec. She's the author of three other books, including A Boring Wife Settles the Score, Autopsy of a Boring Wife and Mister Roger and Me (La petite et le vieux in French), which won Radio-Canada's Les combat des livres in 2012.
Arielle Aaronson is a French to English translator of novels, films and more. She has previously translated Marie-Renée Lavoie's A Boring Wife Settles the Score and Autopsy of a Boring Wife. Aaronson lives in Montreal with her family.
Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman
Smells Like Tween Spirit follows a mother named Jen Dixon, who finds herself facing a host of challenges from science fair to a school fundraiser and the competitive world of being a wrestling mom. Between school events and teaching spin classes, Jen must learn how to navigate this new world and find the strength to press on.
When you can read it: July 5, 2022
Laurie Gelman spent 25 years as a broadcaster in the U.S. and Canada before turning her focus to writing. She is the author of the novels Class Mom, You've Been Volunteered and Yoga Pant Nation. Gelman lives in New York City.
Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier
When Paris Peralta is arrested in her bathroom covered in blood with her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub, she knows she will be charged with murder. Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early 1990s. When Reyes is unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets and Paris must confront the dark past she left behind.
When you can read it: July 19, 2022
Jennifer Hillier is the author of eight psychological thrillers, including the bestselling Little Secrets, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Anthony Award. Hillier lives in Toronto.
