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This article was published 30/12/2023 (861 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tell people you’re the Free Press books editor and you often get something along the lines of “Wow, you read all those books?”

Well, not exactly — I read all those book reviews. Most of the books I end up reading are work-related — a local author with a new book whom I’m talking to, an author coming to town to launch her book, or a writer who’s popping by the Free Press Book Club virtual monthly meeting.

OK, so I do get first pick of almost any book that crosses my desk; if I see something that looks intriguing, I’ll nab it for myself in the hopes of pumping out a review of my own for the books section.

Looking back on 2023, it seems I mainly read fiction. As such, here are five novels (in order of when they were published in 2023) I read and loved. They were culled from a much-larger pile of potential candidates that I shuffled and rearranged until I came to these selections. Narrowing it down to five was a tougher task than I thought.

In other words, 2023 was a fine year indeed for fiction.

 

Birnam Wood

By Eleanor Catton (McClelland & Stewart)

Fans of London, Ont.-born, New Zealand-raised and London-based novelist Eleanor Catton had been waiting patiently for the followup to her sprawling 2013 Victorian-era novel The Luminaries, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Booker Prize.

Birnam Wood, a Giller Prize finalist, is a decidedly more modern work of fiction, albeit with Shakespearean nods; set in New Zealand in 2017, it follows the titular radical guerilla gardening group who hole up in a seemingly abandoned farm after it’s cut off from the world by a landslide. But American drone/surveillance magnate Robert Lemoine, an evil Elon Musk-like character, also has eyes on the property for use as an end-times bunker, and proposes working with Birnam Wood in tandem — but with alternate, sinister plans of his own.

As the pace and tension of this literary eco-thriller ramp up, Catton never sacrifices her rich, Dickensian prose — even in the action-packed finale that will leave readers’ mouths agape.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

 

Biography of X

By Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

American author Catherine Lacey’s spellbinding novel is set in a splintered, dystopian America. Presented as a psuedo-biography, the book claims to be written by a Pulitzer-winning journalist called CM about her late spouse, a groundbreaking and infamous (fictional) visual artist called X, among other past names.

As CM uncovers many previously unknown truths about X, we’re left to ruminate on notions of art, love and authenticity — all as Lacey delivers a gripping and convincing biographical narrative peppered with elements you’d find in a real biography, including photos, cameos of real-life characters, correspondence and more.

I’ll admit to taking this book to review, but ending up so gobsmacked by it that I wasn’t sure I could do it justice.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

 

The Librarianist

By Patrick deWitt (Anansi)

British Columbia-born, Portland-based Patrick deWitt gives us the seemingly serene life of Bob Comet, a retired librarian on the West Coast who, after finding one of its residents on his daily walk, begins volunteering at a seniors’ centre. A stunning revelation about the past of one of the residents of the home sends readers into Bob’s beautifully recounted back story, skipping back to his wartime childhood, his early years with his wife, her leaving him for a close friend and more.

It’s all delivered with deWitt’s inimitable humour and narrative prowess found in prior outings (including The Sisters Brothers, Undermajordomo Minor and French Exit) but with a more more thoughtful, gentle tone.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

 

Wild Hope

By Joan Thomas (Harper Perennial)

Winnipeg novelist Joan Thomas’s followup to 2019’s Five Wives follows Isla, the chef of an Ontario farm-to-table restaurant, and Jake, a struggling artist, as they navigate the rough waters of their marriage. When Jake goes missing, Isla questions whether one of her wealthiest patrons (and Jake’s estranged childhood friend), bottled-water baron Reg Bevaqua, might be involved.

While it’s a literary mystery, Wild Hope also sees Thomas ruminate on climate change without ever getting didactic.

“I can’t imagine writing fiction that is not conscious of this moment. It would feel deliberately evasive and blind,” Thomas told me in a September conversation about Wild Hope. “The silence in our everyday rhetoric is astonishing, and I think writers contribute to it when they write books as if the world is not changing.”

Thomas will join the Free Press Book Club virtual meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 29. For more information on how to join see wfp.to/bookclub.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

 

The Adversary

By Michael Crummey (Knopf Canada)

Novelist and poet Michael Crummey followed up his stunning 2019 novel The Innocents with another immersive trip back in time — again, to 19th-century Newfoundland, his home province — offering an entirely different sibling pair than the young brother and sister featured in his previous book.

This time around we meet the vile, curmudgeonly Abe Strapp and the Widow Caines, his estranged, equally nasty and ruthless sister. The surrounding town of Mockbeggar is populated with hilariously foul-tongued swarthy types who orbit Strapp and Caines in their Cain and Abel-type feud. Once again Crummey’s evocative use of the language of the era and the beautifully bleak landscapes transport readers to a time and place rich with detail.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

 

ben.sigurdson@winnipegfreepress.com

@bensigurdson