8 Canadian books to read if you loved Denison Avenue by Christina Wong & Daniel Innes
Fans of this illustrated novel set in the heart of Kensington Market will enjoy these other titles
Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi championed Denison Avenue by Christina Wong and Daniel Innes on Canada Reads 2024. Throughout the week, Nenshi spoke about the resiliency of the Chinese Canadian community as showcased in the illustrated novel.
Set in Toronto's Chinatown and Kensington Market, Denison Avenue is a moving portrait of a city undergoing mass gentrification and a Chinese Canadian elder experiencing the existential challenges of getting old and being Asian in North America. Recently widowed, Wong Cho Sum takes long walks through the city, collecting bottles and cans and meeting people on her journeys in a bid to ease her grief.
Wong is a Toronto writer, playwright and multidisciplinary artist who also works in sound installation, audio documentaries and photography.
Innes is a multidisciplinary artist from Toronto. He works in painting, installation, graphic and textile design, illustration, sign painting and tattooing.
If you are looking for more stories that centre identity and community, here are eight Canadian books to check out.
Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson
The novel Satellite Love is set in a city in Japan in 1999. Anna is a lonely teenager who turns to stargazing for comfort and escape. But when the Low Earth Orbit satellite (aka LEO) returns, Anna's gaze and comes down to earth as Leo. What follows is an unconventional story about love, loneliness and human connection.
Genki Ferguson was born in New Brunswick to a family of writers and grew up in Calgary. He spent much of his childhood in the subtropical island of Kyushu, Japan, where his mother's family still resides. Satellite Love is his first book and was on the Canada Reads 2022 longlist. Genki was also named one of the 2022 Writers to Watch by CBC Books.
Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung
The unnamed protagonist of Ghost Forest struggles to process the death of her father, in the face of her family's silence. Her father was one of Hong Kong's "astronaut fathers," a man who worked in Hong Kong while his family started a new life in Vancouver.
Pik-Shuen Fung is a Canadian novelist based in New York City. Ghost Forest is her debut book.
archipelago by Laila Malik
archipelago is a collection of lyrical poems exploring family dynamics and self-identity in the face of multigenerational migration.
Laila Malik is a writer living in Adobigok, the traditional land of Indigenous communities that include the Anishinaabe, Seneca, Mohawk Haudenosaunee, and Wendat. archipelago is her debut poetry collection.
What Comes Echoing Back by Leo McKay Jr.
In What Comes Echoing Back, Sam and Robot share a few things in common. First, they are both in the same high school music class. Second, both of them became infamous for the worst things that ever happened to them. While the Internet moves on and small town rumour mills keep cycling, they can't. That is, until a friendship forms and they find music just might be the key to continue playing along.
Leo McKay Jr. is a writer and a high school teacher. He is known for his novel Twenty-Six, which won the Dartmouth Book Award and was chosen for the One Book Nova Scotia event. His debut collection of stories, Like This, also won the Dartmouth Book Award and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. What Comes Echoing Back was longlisted for Canada Reads 2024.
Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill
Bellevue Square plays with literary tropes — specifically within the genres of psychological thriller, science fiction and historical narrative — to tell the story of Jean Mason, a woman who finds out that she may have a doppelgänger in the bohemian Toronto neighbourhood known as Kensington Market. Jean decides to investigate, setting off a chain of events that puts the protagonist through the proverbial emotional and mental wringer.
Michael Redhill is a poet, playwright and novelist. His other novels include Consolation and Martin Sloane. Bellevue Square won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2017. He currently lives in Toronto.
You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked. by Sheung-King
You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked. is a surreal novel about a translator who travels the globe with his lover. Along the way, they tell each other stories, pose philosophical questions and share their ideas about the world. It's glamorous and stimulating, but the lover often disappears without explanation.
Sheung-King is a writer born in Vancouver, raised in Hong Kong and currently living in Toronto. He is also the author of Batshit Seven.
Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Ann Xu
In the graphic novel Shadow Life, 76-year-old Kumiko is placed in a long-term care home by her daughters. It's not what Kumiko wants so she breaks out and takes refuge in an apartment she keeps secret from her children. She finds pleasure in simple, daily life, but Death's shadow haunts her. Kumiko is ready to fight for the life she's built herself, but how long can she fight back?
Hiromi Goto is a writer and editor from British Columbia. Her novels include Chorus of Mushrooms, Half World and Darkest Light. Shadow Life is her first graphic novel.
Ann Xu is an American illustrator.
Natural Order by Brian Francis
In the novel Natural Order, Joyce Sparks is 86 years old and living in a nursing home in her small town of Balsden, Ont. She knows the end is near, so she is reflecting on her life, her lost loves, her biggest mistakes and her relationship with her son.
Brian Francis is the author of novels Fruit, Natural Order and Break in Case of Emergency and the memoir Missed Connections. He is a writer and columnist for The Next Chapter on CBC Radio and lives in Toronto.
