It might seem to be, at first glance, a quintessential CanLit passage, a poetic description of the natural world. Linda Leith Publishing, 2016 But the opening passage of The Company of Crows reveals more about Karen Molson's debut novel, than one might think. "Thin grey lines fan out across the
In which I discuss some of the skinny volumes, which have nestled into my bookbag (while longer works, like Marge Piercy's Gone to Soldiers and Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend, were left at home. Vivek Shraya's God Loves Hair is illustrated by Juliana Neufeld, a full-page image introducing each of
Lisa Moore builds folks from the ink up: she is standout at characterization. Groundwood Books, 2016 One of the elements that makes her characters so convincing is the echo effect, the reverberations off seemingly extraneous details (in images, in descriptions, in settings) to construct multi-faceted individuals. Readers who have
Celine and Julie are negotating the borders of girlhood, wandering back and forth across dotted lines and territories both more and less available to them as the years pass. They trade L.M. Montgomery's girlhood classics for "Law and Order" and Our Bodies, Ourselves, while readers follow in their footsteps in narratives which alternately
It's with a subtle touch, but Nadia Bozak solidly roots the reader in time and place. House of Anansi, 2016 This is not an easy task, because Shell only grows to the age of seventeen in Thirteen Shells -- across thirteen stories, and childhood is inherently rootless. So the details
