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Darkness and danger of third Cal Hooper thriller a fitting, satisfying read

“Cal gets the first whiff of trouble when he’s in Noreen’s shop on a Saturday afternoon, buying eggs.”

So begins The Keeper, the third and final instalment of Irish-American writer Tana French’s acclaimed Cal Hooper trilogy, following The Searcher (2020) and The Hunter (2024). Cal Hooper, a retired cop from Chicago, moved to West Ireland for a quieter life — which, in a shocking turn of events, is not in the cards, as readers of French’s previous two novels will be well aware.

The relative peace in the village of Ardnakelty is shattered when a young woman, Rachel, goes missing, then is subsequently found drowned in the river. Was it an accident, suicide, or something more sinister?

Fingers are pointed at her fiancé, Eugene Moynihan, son of Tommy Moynihan, the big man about town. But there’s other talk as well, some of which centres on Cal’s partner, Lena Dunne.

Trio of cruise-ship storylines converge in post-9/11 boat journey to Bermuda

When it comes to cruise vacations, there are three types of people: those who love them, those who hate them, and those who love to hate them and remain fascinated by their cultural appeal.

Jung Yun’s third novel, All the World Can Hold, scratches the itch of all these groups, criss-crossing the stories of three characters who embark on a five-day journey to Bermuda.

Cruises are inherently places of time-space warp, with their endless arrays of dining, leisure and entertainment options.

What distinguishes this voyage from others is that it takes to sea on Sept. 16, 2001. It’s been five days since 9/11. The characters have all been impacted by the attacks in ways they have yet to recognize.

Rum’s role in early Canada uncorked in new account

Have you ever walked through the rum section of your local Liquor Mart and thought, “I wonder what impact rum had on Canadian history?”

Most of us haven’t, and apparently neither had Allan Greer, professor emeritus of history at McGill University. For Greer, the question is: “why had rum’s outsized role in the life of pre-Confederation been so long overlooked?” It’s one that he answers thoroughly in his non-fiction work Canada in the Age of Rum.

Greer traces the journey of rum’s influence from the fishery in Newfoundland in the 1670s to the fur trade in Western Canada in the 1830s. In seven tidy chapters, he describes the role of rum in commerce, politics and social organization and how, as he puts it, “the colonies that would later become Canada were awash in a sea of rum.”

One of the most sensitive relationships is the one between rum and its use by the fur trade. As Greer explains, it is a much more complex and nuanced situation than what we may have understood from our schooling.

‘Bodies Found in Various Places’ among five collections shortlisted for Griffin Poetry Prize

TORONTO - Daniel Borzutzky, a poet-translator who was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2019 for a collection he wrote, is now in the running for the award for one of his translations.

The Chicago-based writer is shortlisted for the $130,000 award this year alongside his co-translator Alec Schumacher for "Bodies Found in Various Places," which was originally written in Spanish by Elvira Hernández.

It's the only translated work on the short list of five poetry collections, which also includes Gbenga Adesina's "Death Does Not End at the Sea" and "Night Watch" by Kevin Young.

Rounding out the short list are "Green of All Heads" by Aracelis Girmay and "Foxglovewise" by Ange Mlinko.

Actress Sonya Walger, graphic novelist Lee Lai shortlisted for Carol Shields Prize

TORONTO -  

British-American actress Sonya Walger is one of five authors shortlisted for the US$150,000 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

Her autofictional novel "Lion," based on her relationship with her enigmatic father, is in the running for the award, which is the world’s largest English-language literary prize for women and non-binary writers.

Also on the short list is "Cannon" by Melbourne-born, Montreal-based graphic novelist Lee Lai, about two queer, second-generation Chinese-Canadians.

Book bans and attempted bans remain at record highs, with ‘Sold’ topping the list

NEW YORK (AP) — Book bans and attempted bans remain at record highs, according to the American Library Association. And efforts to have titles removed have never been more coordinated or politicized.

The ALA on Monday issued its annual list of the books most challenged at the country's libraries, part of the association's State of America's Libraries Report. Patricia McCormick's “Sold,” a 2006 novel about sex trafficking in India, topped the list for 2025. Others targeted include Stephen Chbosky's high school novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir “Gender Queer” and Sarah J. Maas' romantasy favorite “Empire of Storms.”

The ALA usually features 10 books, but this year has 11, with four tied for eighth place: Anthony Burgess' dystopian classic “A Clockwork Orange,” Ellen Hopkins' sibling drama “Identical,” John Green's boarding school narrative “Looking for Alaska” and Jennifer L. Armentrout's paranormal romance “Storm and Fury.”

Objections include LGBTQ+ themes (“Gender Queer,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”), sexual violence (“Sold” and “A Clockwork Orange”) and use of alcohol and cigarettes (“Looking for Alaska”). Overall, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom recorded challenges to 4,235 different works, topped only by 4,240 in 2023 since the association began keeping track more than 30 years ago.

Ex-exec’s redemption arc exceeds novel’s rough edges

Vancouver-based Patricia Finn has had a varied career; she pursued classical philosophy in university, worked in television and with production companies in both Canada and New Zealand, and has also worked as a ghostwriter. And now, at 71, she has published her debut novel, The Golden Boy.

Stafford Hopkins has built himself a charmed but isolated life. Having made a fortune working as a TV executive when he is suddenly fired, he has a number of far-flung, luxurious properties to which he can retreat. After much arguing with his wife Agnes, they decide to settle in their mansion on Maui, where Agnes can still hobnob and host parties with other ultra-rich elites, while Stafford can hide himself away and restart his studies into Aristotelian philosophy.

Fairly soon into their retreat, Stafford receives a letter from a lawyer in his hometown of Napanee, Ont. that forces him to return home. The four grandchildren of Stafford’s teenage best friend Bobby Shepherd have been orphaned after their parents were killed in a car accident, and Stafford has been named as the children’s guardian.

The premise of the novel is solid, but it does suffer from some pacing issues. The Golden Boy is divided into three main sections, the first of which is almost entirely devoted to Stafford and Agnes in Hawaii and the trials and minor inconveniences of the monstrously rich. At this early stage the reader does not know much about the redeeming qualities of either character that receive more attention later, and so this early section can be grating; the narrative lacks forward momentum, as the conflict presented by the letter doesn’t appear until nearly 80 pages in.

Virginia Evans and Susan Choi are among 6 finalists for the Women’s Prize for Fiction

LONDON (AP) — Four debut novelists are among six books on a U.S.-dominated list of finalists for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction, which is open to female English-language writers from any country.

American authors take four of the six places on the shortlist for the 30,000 pounds ($40,000) prize, announced Wednesday by a judging panel led by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Among them are bestselling writer Lily King’s campus-set romance “Heart the Lover” and Susan Choi’s twisty family saga “Flashlight,” a finalist for last year’s Booker Prize.

First novels making the list include U.S. writer Virginia Evans’ “The Correspondent,” a novel told in letters with an older woman as protagonist that became a slow-burn hit after its release in 2025; and Addie E. Citchens’ “Dominion,” a story of power and patriarchy centered on a Black church in Mississippi.

Author’s grandson aims to set the record straight about literary lightning rod

“This is a book of revelations,” writes Merlin Holland as he begins his extensive account of the downfall and subsequent decades-long hypocritical attacks on his grandfather, playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, who became the poster boy of sexual misconduct (a homosexual affair) and subversive behaviour for attacking Victorian morals.

Despite some rehabilitation of Wilde’s life and actions, “I have no doubt that Oscar will go on inspiring hypocrisy in various forms for decades to come,” Holland says.

Many of the people who attacked Wilde or unduly benefited from his work (or their descendants) will feel uncomfortable by the revelations in this book, he writes, and if that sounds simply like historical payback, it is not. The author’s research draws a clear picture of the vicious attacks on Wilde’s character and writing, and on those who monetarily benefited from it.

But first: the scandal took place in 1895; Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years’ hard labour for an affair with Lord Alfred (Bosie) Douglas, son of the Marquess of Queensberry. The marquess accused Wilde of being a sodomite, and Wilde sued for libel, goaded by Bosie, who loathed his father. Wilde withdrew his suit, and was charged and convicted in criminal court.

Johnston’s mythic symbolism in Newfoundland novel excavates the province’s past

In this extremely Catholic novel, veteran Newfoundland writer Wayne Johnston takes aim at the repressive religious environment that formed — or deformed — his home province.

The title character and first-person narrator, Vivian Holloway, is a “novice” in the Catholic meaning of the term — a member of a religious order who has yet to take his or her vows.

It is 1947, and “Vivvy,” at age 28, has just returned to her family home, “the largest private residence in Newfoundland,” after eight years in a convent, failing to become a nun.

Apparently, belief in a Christian god is a prerequisite of the job.

When commodification stays out of the way, sports still offer emotional release

It’s absurd, perhaps even an abomination. When the Winnipeg Jets desperately flung a puck into the St. Louis Blues’ net, we all lost our minds — 15,000 hockey fans. I grabbed my son and picked him up. The guy next to me kissed my cheek. My best friend behind me hugged me with a grip that caught me off guard. How could we all be caught up in sports? How could we not?

This is part of the power and allure of sports. All of us in that arena, and watching on TV, know sports has become spoiled by the grotesqueness of prolific and condoned online gambling, the ridiculous and preposterous salaries of 20-year-olds and the general bread-and-circuses state of affairs that is professional sport.

But at the same moment, we all admired that singular second when sports became athletics and when athletics became art. And when that art drives community, relationships and the ability to marvel at human capability, something special is happening

Such is the struggle of Canadian sports writer David MacFarlane, in Biblioasis’ latest offering in its diminutive Field Notes series of non-fiction books. The Giller-shortlisted author (Summer’s Gone) digs deep into his southern Ontario roots — peppered with Toronto Maple Leafs, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Blue Jays nostalgia — in On Sports, a dissection of our adoration and dismay that is sports.

Art, technology and memory converge in Lerner’s brief, insightful new novel

Pulitzer Prize finalist Ben Lerner’s fourth novel, Transcription, is a compact and profound meditation on the nature of memory, mentorship and the making of fiction in the digital age.

Lerner is the author of several collections of poetry, including the National Book Award-nominated Angle of Yaw, as well as the non- fiction book-length essay, The Hatred of Poetry, in which the titular stance becomes the basis for the genre’s defence. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship Genius Grant in 2015.

His fiction tends to the autobiographical. Like Lerner, Adam Gordon — the narrator of his trilogy Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and The Topeka School — was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1979, was a brilliant high school debater, lived in Madrid on scholarship and becomes a Brooklyn-based writer and poet who attains great literary and academic success.

Lerner’s collaborations with artists include The Polish Rider with Anna Ostoya, which incorporates a short story of the same name by Lerner published in the New Yorker, and The Snows of Venice with Alexander Kluge, the German filmmaker and author who died earlier this year and who some critics pinpoint as the inspiration for the mentor figure of Thomas in Transcription.