PAPER CHASE: Grant helps Bergen write new novel

Free Press literary editor picks noteworthy Canadian fiction and non-fiction titles to watch for this fall

For many book lovers, summer means relaxing at the beach, in the backyard or at the cottage with fun, warm-weather page-turners — easy-going romance novels, gripping thrillers or even a dishy biography.

And some may long for the summer months to slow down, fall books season always offers up some of the most compelling reads for bookworms.

Here are 10 works of fiction and 10 non-fiction titles from Canadian authors slated to be published in the coming months — from Olympians to separatists, draft dodgers, plutocrats, prime ministers, bird-men and beyond, the characters in these forthcoming titles run the gamut.

FICTIONEliza Sunshine

Canada vows dollar-for-dollar tariff retaliation, suspends trade talks with U.S.

OTTAWA - A last-ditch effort to reach a new trade deal before a midnight tariff deadline failed Friday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended talks with the United States and summoned his negotiators back to Ottawa.

The decision meant new 50 per cent tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian exports to the U.S. took effect at 12:01 a.m., and Carney vowed Canada would retaliate with equal measures of its own.

"In recent weeks, we made important progress toward improving Canada's position as having the best deal in the world with the U.S.," Carney said in a statement just before Trump's tariff deadline.

"However, that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians."

PAPER CHASE: Grant helps Bergen write new novel

Need, poverty, greed, love and grace come together in a new novel-in-progress by Winnipeg's David Bergen.

Bergen has received a major arts grant worth $20,000 from the Manitoba Arts Council this spring to work on City of S., a new novel about an itinerant, a prostitute and a detective in a mid-sized Canadian city, known as the city of S.

After taking inspiration from Saul Bellow for his 2010 novel, The Matter with Morris, Bergen appears to be reading another heavy hitter of American letters these days. One of the characters is compared to Cornelius Suttree, from Cormac McCarthy's early novel Suttree.

Besides Bergen, MAC has announced that its 2013 major arts grants have gone to performance artist Grant Guy, artist-curator J.J. Kegan McFadden and folk singers Keri Latimer and Nicky Mehta.

Executive exodus continues at Shared Health with three recent departures

Manitoba’s provincial health authority is looking for its fourth chief financial officer since 2023 and additional replacements after the recent departures of three executives.

Residents fear mailbox crime sprees

Some North End residents are concerned new community mailboxes will become a target for vandalism and crime after the base of one was recently lit ablaze — before it was even installed.

The community mailboxes started to show up on Andrews Street within the last two weeks. Some have been installed, while at other locations, only the concrete foundation is in place.

“They just dumped them on the boulevard,” said Stephen Giesbrecht, who lives beside one of the boxes in the St. John’s neighbourhood. “They dumped them on the corner and then they were gone.”

One of the concrete slabs has already played host to a fire and some of the hardware needed to install the mailbox melted.