“Bad coffee can only keep you company for so long at four a.m. in a bus depot.” Caitlin Press, 2014 All of the characters in Janine Alyson Young’s debut collection seem as though they would immediately recognize the truth of that. They all seem to have a spot
Like his first novel, Touch, The Lobster Kings showcases Alexi Zentner’s penchant for storytelling. Knopf Canada, 2014 Readers who learn that this novel is a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy "King Lear" might expect the tale to distance readers, with the original story centuries old and memories of stilted
You might be tempted to call eight-year-old Egg Murakami enchanting or winsome. Even plucky or spirited. Goose Lane Editions, 2014 Each of these terms does reflect Egg in some sense. But such descriptions suggest something young-Oprah-heroine-esque about her. Egg’s character is too fully rounded to simply select the
Coming Home: Stories from the Northwest Territories (Enfield & Wizenty, 2012) In the foreword, Richard Van Camp writes that this collection is a "testament to the beauty of the land, the communities and the people who choose to live here" and he welcomes readers to the works. The same words might
Though each segment could be read as a standalone, each is So Much a Part of the Landscape that Polly Dugan's work is best read all-in-a-burst. Little Brown & Company, 2014 More trust is required on the reader's part than, say, with Carrie Snyder's more prominently linked The Juliet
