Matrix star to co-author debut novel

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This article was published 13/01/2024 (1013 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Keanu Reeves is the latest big name to try his hand at fiction.

The star of the John Wick and Matrix franchises teamed up with British author China Miéville for The Book of Elsewhere, a novel set in the same world as the BRZRKR comic book series Reeves created with artist Ron Garney and writer Matt Kindt.

According to Deadline, The Book of Elsewhere “will follow an immortal warrior on a millennia-long quest to discover the key to his immortality (and perhaps, a way to free himself from it).” The book is slated to be published in Canada on July 23 by Random House of Canada.

Reeves will appear in a Netflix film set in the BRZRKR universe and an anime spinoff is apparently also in development. For more see thebookofelsewhere.com.

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A new bookstore has opened in St. James with a focus on works of horror of all sorts.

Located at 1859 Portage Ave., Raven’s End Books opened in early January and is the project of Chelsea McKee-Trenchard and her sister-in-law. “Raven’s End was started with a very strong vision in mind. Create a community space for horror lovers where they can find exactly what they want. I was always getting frustrated struggling to find new books in my weird niches of interests and wanted to change that,” McKee-Trenchard recently wrote on the bookstore’s Instagram page.

For more on the store, which is open Tuesday through Saturday, see ravensendbooks.com.

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McNally Robinson Booksellers kicks off its 2024 events schedule with the book launch for an Austrian-born baroque poet who died in 1694.

Published by CMU Press, Wonder-Work: Selected Sonnets of Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg features writing by the titular poet translated into English by modern day poet-translators, with 65 of Grieffenberg’s poems from her work Geistliche Sonette, Lieder und Gedichte presented in both English and German.

Local poets Joanne Epp, Sally Ito and Sarah Klassen will host the book launch and read from the work (presumably in English) on Friday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.

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The award formerly known as the Rathbones Folio Prize has returned with a new name and a trio of short lists.

The three categories for the Writers’ Prize — fiction, non-fiction and poetry — each feature three finalists; the winner in each category will receive £2,000, with the overall winner receiving £30,000.

Finalists in the fiction category are Anne Enright’s The Wren, The Wren, Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting and Zadie Smith’s The Fraud. The non-fiction finalists are Laura Cumming’s Thunderclap: A Memoir of Life and Art and Sudden Death, Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World and Mark O’Connell’s A Thread of Violence: A Story of Truth, Invention and Murder. Contenders for the top poetry prize are Jason Allen-Paisant’s Self-Portrait as Othello, Liz Berry’s The Home Child and Mary Jean Chan’s Bright Fear.

The Folio Academy, which features over 350 authors, will judge the awards for each category and top prize; the winners will be announced on March 13 at the London Book Fair.

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CBC’s Canada Reads has announced its list of five finalists and the five champions of the books for the popular program, which runs March 4-7.

The finalists for the 23rd edition of the popular book competition, hosted by Ali Hassan, are Carley Fortune’s Meet Me at the Lake, championed by content creator and model Mirian Njoh; Denison Avenue by Christina Wong and Daniel Innes, championed by former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi; Jessica Johns’ Bad Cree, championed by former Olympic volleyballer Dallas Soonias; Shut Up You’re Pretty by Téa Mutonji, championed by actor Kudakwashe Rutendo; and The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou, championed by former Canada Reads winner Heather O’Neill, whose debut novel Lullabies for Little Criminals won the competition in 2007 after being championed by Winnipeg musician John K. Samson.

books@freepress.mb.ca