8 Canadian books to read if you loved The Future by Catherine Leroux
Fans of the Canada Reads winner will enjoy these other titles
Author Heather O'Neill championed The Future on Canada Reads 2024, becoming the first person to win as both a writer and a contender.
The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou, is set in an alternate history of Detroit where the French never surrendered the city to the U.S. Its residents deal with poverty, pollution and a legacy of racism. When Gloria, a woman looking for answers about her missing granddaughters, arrives in the city, she finds a kingdom of orphaned and abandoned children who have created their own society.
The Future also won the Jacques-Brossard Award for speculative fiction.
Leroux is a writer, translator and journalist from Montreal. She was shortlisted for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize for The Party Wall, which is an English translation of her French-language short story collection Le mur mitoyen. Leroux won the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for English to French translation for her translation of Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.
Ouriou is a French and Spanish to English translator, a fiction writer and a playwright. She has previously won the Governor General's Literary Award for translation for her work. She lives in Calgary.
Here are eight Canadian books to check out if you loved The Future.
The Bear by Claire Cameron
In The Bear, five-year old Anna and her little brother Alex flee from the black bear that killed their parents and embark on a harrowing quest for survival. Like the children in The Future, they must fend for themselves in the wilderness.
Claire Cameron is a Toronto-based writer. Her books include The Line Painter and The Last Neanderthal, which was nominated for the Rogers Writer's Trust Fiction Prize. She is a staff writer at The Millions.
Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey
In Heartbreaker, Claudia Dey's second novel, Billie Jean has disappeared. She's lived in a small town for almost 20 years, and still feels like she doesn't quite belong. Those who love Billie Jean set out to find her, and the search results in a fantastical journey about the mysteries of life.
Claudia Dey is a Toronto author, playwright and actor. She is also the co-designer of women's clothing brand Horses Atelier. She is also the author of the novels Stunt and Heartbreaker. Heartbreaker was a finalist for the 2019 Trillium Book Award.
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
The Marrow Thieves takes places in a world where climate change has ravaged the Earth and a continent-wide hunt and slaughter of Indigenous people is underway. Wanted for their bone marrow, which contains the lost ability to dream, a group of Indigenous people seek refuge in the old lands.
In 2017, The Marrow Thieves won the Governor General's Literary Award for Young people's literature — text and the Kirkus Prize for young readers' literature. The sequel, Hunting by Stars, was released in 2021.
The Marrow Thieves was defended by Jully Black on Canada Reads 2018.
Cherie Dimaline is a Métis author and editor. Her other books include Hunting by Stars, Red Rooms, The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy, A Gentle Habit and Empire of Wild. The Marrow Thieves was named one of Time magazine's top 100 YA novels of all time. Dimaline won the 2021 Writers' Trust Engel Findley Award, recognizing the accomplishments of a fiction writer in the middle of her career.
The Innocents by Michael Crummey
In The Innocents, a young brother and sister live in isolation in Newfoundland, surviving alone on the bits of knowledge their parents left behind. Their loyalty to one another is the reason they are able to persist through storms and illness, but their relationship is tested as they grow older.
The Innocents was shortlisted for the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 2019 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.
Michael Crummey is a poet and novelist from Newfoundland and Labrador. He has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize twice and the Governor General's Literary Award three times. His other books include the novels Sweetland and Galore and the poetry collection Little Dogs.
How to be Found by Emily Pohl-Weary
How to be Found is a YA novel about best friends Michie and Trissa, who were raised by their single mothers in the same duplex. At 16 years old, the friends suddenly find themselves with different interests — Trissa loves going to the hottest nightclub in town, while Michie would prefer to stay in reading her favourite book. When Trissa goes missing one night everyone writes her off, but Michie refuses to give up on her friend. Her search for Trissa takes her to dangerous places, all the while a serial killer is targeting girls in their city.
How to be Found is for ages 12 and up.
Emily Pohl-Weary is a writer and creative writing instructor at the University of British Columbia. Her previous books include the YA novels Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl and Strange Times at Western High and the poetry book Ghost Sick. Pohl-Weary is originally from Toronto and now lives in Vancouver.
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
Premee Mohamed's novel takes place long after climate disasters have wreaked havoc around the globe. The Annual Migration of Clouds is set on the abandoned University of Alberta campus, where a community of survivors cobbles together an existence as they cope with an incurable disease.
Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and author of speculative fiction in Edmonton. Her series Beneath the Rising received nominations for the Crawford Award, British Fantasy Award, Locus Award and Aurora Award.
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill
The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a historical tragicomic love story about two orphans hustling in Montreal's underground who dream of opening a circus together. Despite it seeming like everything is against them, they eventually make their dreams come true — but at what cost?
Heather O'Neill is a writer from Montreal. Her books include the novels Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, the short story collection Daydreams of Angels and the nonfiction book Wisdom in Nonsense. She was the first back-to-back finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize: The Girl Who Was Saturday Night was a finalist in 2014 and Daydreams of Angels was a finalist in 2015.
The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore by Kim Fu
In Kim Fu's novel The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, we meet a group of girls whose summer camp world of friendship bracelets and campfire songs takes an ugly turn on an overnight kayak trip. They end up stranded on a remote island and the actions that take place then and there stay with them right into their adult lives.
Fu is the Vancouver-born author of two novels, For Today I Am a Boy and The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore. She has also written a poetry collection titled How Festive the Ambulance: Poems.
