A heady harvest
Canadian authors offer bumper crop of promising fiction in the coming months
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/08/2023 (1151 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Every autumn, fiction readers anticipate the slate of new novels hitting store shelves, immersing themselves in fictional settings, loving (or loathing) the characters brought to life on the page.
This year’s fall fiction lineup is particularly strong, especially from the Canadian contingent of writers, including buzzworthy books from local authors.
Here are a dozen Canadian novels to watch for in the coming months. And mark those calendars — many of the authors will be launching their new works in Winnipeg in September and October.
Learned By Heart
By Emma Donoghue (HarperCollins, Aug. 29)
The author of Room and The Wonder returns with a novel, based on a true story, of two girls who fall deeply in love at a 19th-century boarding school.
Emma Donoghue will be at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location to launch Learned By Heart on Monday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m.
Away From the Dead
By David Bergen (Goose Lane, Sept. 5)
Set in early-20th century Ukraine during the Russian Revolution of the early 20th century, the Winnipeg-based Giller-winning author’s novel follows characters connected through family, loyalty and love.
David Bergen launches Away From the Dead on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
The Circle
By Katherena Vermette (Penguin Canada, Sept. 5)
The third and final book in Vermette’s trilogy (following The Break and The Strangers) offers a plethora of Métis voices, victims and accused perpetrators, who account for a crime that has transformed their lives.
Vanda Fleury photo Katherena Vermette
Do You Remember Being Born?
By Sean Michaels (Random House, Sept. 5)
Marian, an esteemed 75-year-old poet mulling the plight of her middle-aged son, visits a powerful Silicon Valley company to “collaborate” with Charlotte, a poetry bot. Michaels (the Giller-winning author of Us Conductors) traces Marian and Charlotte’s fraught relationship.
Everything There Is
By M.G. Vassanji (Doubleday Canada, Sept. 5)
The two-time Giller winner is back with a book about an esteemed London physicist in an arranged marriage who falls in love with a graduate student in Massachussetts. Meanwhile, tensions flare in his birth country of Pakistan as he refuses to contribute to the country’s nuclear project.
Aaron Vincent Elkaim / The Canadian Press files M.G. Vassanji
Roaming
By Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki (Drawn & Quarterly, Sept. 12)
The award-winning duo behind the graphic novel This One Summer reconvene with a story of a trip to bustling New York in 2009 and a queer relationship that blossoms there, throwing the dynamic between casual acquaintances off balance.
Island Falls
By Owen Toews (ARP Books, Sept. 15)
The debut allegorical novella by Winnipeg’s Toews (Stolen City) explores themes of capitalism and colonialism as a student’s peculiar friend ruminates on the mill town he grew up in, and the workers’ tough conditions and inequity they suffer through.
Wild Hope
By Joan Thomas (HarperCollins, Sept. 19)
The award-winning Winnipeg author (Five Wives) returns with a novel that follows Isla and Jake, an estranged couple (a chef and an artist, respectively) and Reg, a bottled-water baron. When Jake goes missing, all signs point to Reg as being involved.
Joan Thomas launches Wild Hope in Winnipeg on Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files Joan Thomas
And Then She Fell
By Alicia Elliott (Doubleday, Sept. 26)
The latest novel by the Mohawk author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground follows a new mother in Toronto who begins to think something is wrong with her as she copes with her baby and loss of her own mother.
Alicia Elliott launches And Then She Fell on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
Alex Jacobs-Blum photo Alicia Elliott
The Adversary
By Michael Crummey (Knopf, Sept. 26)
The author of The Innocents, Sweetland and more delivers the story of a wedding gone awry in northern Newfoundland, and the vendettas and violence entangled in a conflict between rival entrepreneurs.
Michael Crummey launches The Adversary on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
Paul Daly / The Canadian Press files Michael Crummey
Moon of the Turning Leaves
By Waubgeshig Rice (Random House, Oct. 10)
The sequel to Rice’s 2018 novel Moon of the Crusted Snow brings readers back to the remote northern Ontario community where Evan Whitesky has struggled to help keep his community afloat; he leads a scouting party with his daughter to seek new beginnings.
Waubgeshig Rice launches Moon of the Turning Leaves on Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
Supplied photo Waubgeshig Rice
Held
By Anne Michaels (McClelland & Stewart, Nov. 14)
The Fugitive Pieces author offers a rumination on desire of all kinds — including the desire to understand — set across four generations haunted by the past, by visions of ghosts and more.
books@winnipegfreepress.com
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Advertisement Advertise With Us
Advertisement Advertise With Us
