Tomorrow, I will be on the move. So many of the books currently occupying a position in my stacks are bulky and heavy, that it was easy to choose amongst the skinny residents. I have one more story to read in Gabrielle Roy's The Road Past Altamont. There are only three in
It’s frightening, what happened to the author late one night travelling on a dark road after an exhausting studio session, forced to suddenly stop because of two shadowy figures ahead. (You can read about the event in an article on her UK publisher's site, here.) Simon & Schuster, 2015
Unsurprisingly, a story named for a main character is going to be preoccupied with names and identity. It's also the first thing readers observe Queenie saying to Chrissy, when she arrives in Toronto and is met at Union Station. Her husband thinks it sounds like an animal's name, so Chrissy
Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods (2014) Comprised of five long and two short works, these tales are peopled with losses and lonelinesses. Hues of red, black and white dominate the volume, with other colours used sparingly for contrast. Panel use is unpredictable, with images sometimes boxed but often sprawling and
Mark Lavorato’s debut novel is aptly titled as the novel is equally divided between these two characters, a young woman who dances on stage and a young man who takes photographs on the streets. Through them, readers experience Montreal of the 1920s, from vaudeville to fascism, and women’s rights to
