Our neighbors to the north observe Canada Day on July 1st, in commemmoration of the Constitution Act of 1867 which united the separate colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia into the single British Dominion of Canada. In honor of this holiday, here are 15 great books by Canadian authors, from long-standing Canadian icons like Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro to newer Canadian voices like Zalika Reid-Benta and Vivek Shraya.
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The hidden keys
by André Alexis Thief Tancred Palmieri learns that a wealthy man has passed and left clues to his inheritance in the form of objects given to each of his children, so as Tancred steals these objects and gets closer to the treasure, she must fend off people also intent on finding it. |
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The testaments
by Margaret Atwood A long-anticipated sequel to the best-selling The Handmaid’s Tale is set 15 years after Offred stepped into an unknown fate and interweaves the experiences of three female narrators from Gilead. |
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The orenda
by Joseph Boyden Abandoned by his native guides a year after arriving in the New World, a seventeenth-century Jesuit missionary is taken prisoner by a Huron warrior in the Canadian wilderness and made to work as an emissary between rival nations at the side of an orphaned Iroquois girl. |
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The pull of the stars : a novel
by Emma Donoghue A novel set in 1918 Dublin offers a three-day look at a maternity ward during the height of the Great Flu pandemic. By the best-selling author of Room. |
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Washington Black
by Esi Edugyan Unexpectedly chosen to be a family manservant, an eleven-year-old Barbados sugar-plantation slave is initiated into a world of scientific inquiry and dignity before a devastating betrayal propels him throughout the world in search of his true self. |
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Falling in love with hominids
by Nalo Hopkinson Presents a collection of fantasy and science fiction short stories, including a retelling of "The Tempest," as a Caribbean myth. |
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The high mountains of Portugal : a novel
by Yann Martel An allegorical novel in three parts is set in the fictional High Mountains of 17th-century Portugal and beyond, where characters explore questions of loss and faith while on a quest, while tackling ghosts and in the contemporary world. By the award-winning author of Life of Pi. |
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Family furnishings : selected stories, 1995-2014
by Alice Munro A selection of signature short fiction from the past two decades includes pieces set in small Ontario communities and stands as a companion to the Nobel Prize-winning author's Selected Stories: 1968-1994. |
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Warlight
by Michael Ondaatje After growing up in the care of a group of mysterious protectors who served during World War II, a young man endeavors to piece together the truth about his unconventional upbringing. |
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Frying plantain : stories
by Zalika Reid-Benta Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle--of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a "true" Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother's rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too "faas" or too "quiet" or too "bold" or too "soft." Set in "Little Jamaica," Toronto's Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig's head in her great aunt's freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother's house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents. A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker. In her brilliantly incisive debut, Zalika Reid-Benta artfully depicts the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation Canadians and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominately white society. |
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The stone diaries
by Carol Shields From her birth in rural Manitoba, to her journey with her father to southern Indiana, to her years as a wife, mother, and widow, to her old age, Daisy Stone Goodwill struggles to find a place for herself in her own life. |
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The subtweet : a novel
by Vivek Shraya Everyone talks about falling in love, but falling in friendship can be just as captivating. When Neela Devaki's song is covered by internet-famous artist Rukmini, the two musicians meet and a transformative friendship begins. But as Rukmini's star risesand Neela's stagnates, jealousy and self-doubt creep in. With a single tweet, their friendship implodes, one career is destroyed, and the two women find themselves at the center of an internet firestorm. Celebrated multidisciplinary artist Vivek Shraya'ssecond novel is a stirring examination of making art in the modern era, a love letter to brown women, an authentic glimpse into the music industry, and a nuanced exploration of the promise and peril of being seen. |
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Do not say we have nothing : a novel
by Madeleine Thien Marie endeavors to piece together the story of her fractured family's past and its connection to her friend Ai-Ming, uncovering information about how both women's fathers were forced to reimagine their identities during Mao's Cultural Revolution. |
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Indian horse : a novel
by Richard Wagamese After losing his entire family, Saul Indian Horse, alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, turns to hockey, a sport in which he has a real shot at a professional career, to escape from the indignities, taunts, racism and hatred in a world that will never welcome him. |
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Jonny Appleseed : a novel
by Joshua Whitehead Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, becomes a cybersex worker who fetishizes himself in order to make a living. Jonny's world is a series of breakages, appendages, andlinkages - and as he goes through the motions of preparing to return home for his step-father's funeral, he learns how to put together the pieces of his life. Jonny Appleseed is a unique, shattering vision of Indigenous life, full of grit, glitter, and dreams. |