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All Books

All Books in this Collection

  • In the Company of Strangers

    In the Company of Strangers

    $18.95

    Mary Meigs is one of the eight women who portray themselves in the film The Company of Strangers, a “semi-documentary” National Film Board production, released in 1990 to overwhelming critical and popular acclaim. Meigs spent two years writing this extraordinary narrative, which begins as her story of being in the film and unfolds into a gentle, intricate meditation on the experience of time, old age, magic and binding. Time becomes still and circular as the women’s self-images and film images, their past and present, are bound inextricably with the filmmaker’s vision.

  • In the Country in the Dark

    In the Country in the Dark

    $19.95

    When Landon and Joy meet they feel an instant connection and quickly become inseparable. One day shortly after they’ve met, they take a trip to view The Hart Farm, an idyllic property located in a remote area. It’s perfect, with room for Landon to set up his carpentry shop and Joy to have an art studio. The real estate agent feels complete disclosure of the property’s tragic and potentially violent past is necessary but Landon and Joy decide ignorance is bliss and ask to not be told the details. They’re in love and smitten with the farm and decide on the spot to buy it.

    As they spend their days creating art, reading, cooking for each other, listening to music, and making love, they can barely believe their good fortune. However, when the heat of summer–as well as their initial infatuation–begins to wane, Landon and Joy realize how little they know about each other or the house they now call home. They begin to feel a mounting sense of danger and uncertainty about what they used to delight in–the mysterious and tragic history of The Hart Farm, the wolves that prowl in the dark of night, and the near stranger they share a bed with.

    In the Country in the Dark is a thrilling psychological exploration of the secrets we keep and why, the obsessions we live with, the love we all need, the family we sometimes find–and the lengths we might go to keep it.

  • In the Defense of Liberty

    In the Defense of Liberty

    $24.95

    Set on a US college campus in 1964, In the Defense of Liberty is a powerful, fast-paced novel exploring gender nonconformity and the reach of history.

    It’s 1964, and the students at Merida University in Ohio can sense that something is brewing—the campus is rippling with undercurrents of anger and alienation. As they work to make sense of the rapidly shifting cultural and ideological climate, the four main characters of In the Defense of Liberty are also consumed by their own personal dramas.

    There’s Mason, a history student growing his hair long and struggling to find anywhere he belongs. There’s Lorianne, a young wife who left a promising career in academia when she got pregnant. There’s Henry, Lorianne’s husband, who is working year after year on his thesis, with no end in sight. And there’s Jessie, a TA who has always been a bit of an enigma. Over one turbulent summer, the intense connections between these four characters take a number of thrilling twists and turns, with each relationship taken to its breaking point.

    In this fascinating and fast-paced novel, Keith Maillard expertly captures the ethos of the mid-1960s and explores threads of gender and sexuality, while holding up a mirror to the roots of modern-day American polarization.

  • In the Embrace of the Alligator

    In the Embrace of the Alligator

    $18.95

    The woman is flying in small airplane and sees in the distance the great cumbrous mass of El Yunque, the flat-topped mesa that announces the historic town of Baracoa. She has likely heard the legend of the Honey River, where it is said that the person who bathes in its waters and gets married in Baracoa must stay there forever. She knows people in Baracoa. She is going to meet Onaldo, her Afro-Cuban lover, and she will become ‘Katrina’ to continue her private journals. In this series of linked fictions, unified by place and a cast of overlapping characters, Karina travels the length of El Caimán, the alligator which is Cuba.

    The narratives that make up this book have their origins in Hale’s travel journal, but emerge as stories, arriving at that place just beyond creative non-fiction. Vivid and sensitive portraits are balanced with the dark undercurrents of Cuban life. Katrina witnesses how politics have re-shaped the culture and lives of the people she encounters, while she falls deeply in love with the true and hidden life of El Caimán.

  • In the Eyes of God

    In the Eyes of God

    $17.95

    “There’s no business like show business,” and if you ever had any doubt about that, In the Eyes of God will bring you back to your senses. A vicious, vulgar, unsparing and grotesque look at the talent agencies that remake the Hollywood stars and tabloid personalities out of the willing clay of their own flesh, the greed, avarice and banality laid bare in this play would be horrifying if it weren’t so funny, and laughter is our only defence when somewhere deep down in what’s left of our souls we know this portrait of rank, speculative, self-interested capitalism to be true.

    Originally conceived as a play about car salesmen, it wasn’t until its writer/director Raul Sanchez Inglis went to Hollywood on a business trip that he found a setting true to his vision of sales as the ultimate cash machine. Two rival agencies are competing ruthlessly to sign the “promising” young screenwriter/filmmaker Edward Foster, yet nowhere throughout the play is the title, much less the subject of his project, ever mentioned. Sure, “people are looking at it,” he is told, but only as a vehicle to reposition themselves at the trough of the Hollywood star machine is left unsaid. That’s because concern about content, product and people is always an impediment to the efficient maximization of any sales campaign. What is being fought over in this ultimate exercise of social Darwinism is the promise of a dream—a dream of riches, fame, success and public adulation everyone is willing to pay for, to offer their bodies for, to sacrifice their loved ones for, to die for. If the corporate hedonism of America that gave us Robert Milliken, Gordon Gecko and Enron is reflected in the eyes of God, then those eyes are made, as we might have suspected, of celluloid.

  • In the Eyes of Stone Dogs

    In the Eyes of Stone Dogs

    $15.95

    Daniel Danis’s homage to Aeschylus, the “father of tragedy,” is set on an imaginary island in the St. Lawrence River. The eccentric islanders are about to join in the outdoor “Rages” staged by the trickster Coyote—wild Bacchanalia where the participants, under the influence of his potions, lose all vestiges of their civility and abandon themselves to the elemental forces of life and death.

    Under the ever-present eyes of a chorus of dogs, the play opens with Djoukie, holding a series of number eights, symbols of eternity, changing the price at her mother’s Gaz-O-Tee-Pee. Determined to escape this “real junkpile for a bunch of mental cases,” Djouke wants only to discover the mystery of her paternity before she leaves. But she is unprepared for what she is about to discover: that the day brings on the night, and that all humans are trapped at the heart of this eternal quarrel.

    Le Langue-à-Langue des chiens de roche was the winner of the 2002 Governor General’s Award for French Drama.

  • In the Field

    In the Field

    $19.95

    In the Field

  • In the Field

    In the Field

    $21.95

    In The Field, Sadiqa de Meijer’s follow up to the Governor General’s Award winning alfabet/alphabet, brings us essays that move searchingly through their central questions. What meaning does a birthplace hold? What drives us to make contact with a work of art? How do we honour the remains of the dead? This writing constitutes a form of fieldwork grounded in intimate observation. In The Field is an extraordinary book, one that invites readers to bring renewed attention to their own lives and to embrace the subjectivity in the experiences of others.

  • In the First Early Days of My Death

    In the First Early Days of My Death

    $14.95

    When young, unlucky Wendy Li finds herself floating above the trees and buildings of her home town Winnipeg, she immediately suspects she’s been murdered by her husband’s jealous ex-lover, Evelyn. But no one is aware of Wendy’s spirit drifting over the city, longing to settle the unfinished business of her life. The citizens of Winnipeg are embroiled in controversy over the construction of a new casino. Wendy’s psychic mother-in-law can’t see a thing; her superstitious sister-in-law is afraid of ghosts; and her beloved husband is too stupid to realize what’s going on—or is he? Meanwhile, the detective down the street seems more intent on attracting his own wife’s attention than on seeking justice. As Wendy watches from above, she begins to fear that Evelyn will get away with murder, and that no one will remember to water the garden.

  • In the Flight of Stars

    In the Flight of Stars

    $19.95

    In the Flight of Stars, Dorothy Roberts’s seventh book of poetry and her first in more than a decade, is — in her own words — ” a collection of latter-life poems,” the mature work of a firm intelligence. No sentimentalist, Roberts unflinchingly confronts the polarities of birth and death, decay and renewal, the gradual passage of light, the forces of dissolution, the patterns and requirements of nature. Growing old, she observes the pleasures of age and the interwoven pattern of loss. Like the best of her earlier work, In the Flight of Stars demonstrates Roberts’s ease with language, her preference for meter and movement, her interest in subtle variations of sound and her ability to combine idea and metaphor. The result is a signifcant collection of verse which is formal without being austere; muscular yet singularly delicate and sensuous.

  • In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven

    In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven

    $45.00

    Now available in a paper-bound edition

    Nearly a century ago, a group of artists travelled into northern Ontario and farther afield to capture the raw, terrible beauty that lay just beyond the outskirts of Canada’s cities and towns. Armed with sketchbooks, brushes, and paint boxes, they set off into the heart of the wilderness with the singular purpose of interpreting the landscape in a modern mode of artistic expression.

    In July 1977, Jim and Sue Waddington set off on their own expedition to discover the places that inspired these artists. Determined to locate, document, and photograph the actual landscapes that inspired A.Y. Jackson, Franklin Carmichael, Arthur Lismer, Lawren Harris, A.J. Casson, J.E.H. MacDonald, Tom Thomson, and Frederick Varley, the Waddingtons began a thirty-six-year journey — tracking down clues, deciphering bits of information, tracing ancient portage routes, and exploring hidden inlets — all with the purpose of finding the very spots that gave birth to the work of the Group of Seven.

    The result was an amazing story of discovery. In this paper-bound edition of their bestselling book, in which original paintings are paired with contemporary photographs of the locations where the original works were created, Jim and Sue Waddington invite their readers to come face to face with the elusive muses that enlightened and enriched this renowned group of artists.

  • In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven

    In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven

    $55.00

    In July of 1977, Jim and Sue Waddington began a 36 year journey of discovery that has culminated in this remarkable achievement, In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven. Determined to locate, document, and photograph the actual landscapes that inspired and influenced the brushes of A.Y. Jackson, Franklin Carmichael, Arthur Lismer, Lawren Harris, A.J. Casson, J.E.H. MacDonald, Tom Thomson, and Frederick Varley, the Waddingtons embarked on an artistic expedition that carried them across Canada from sea to sea to sea. Their search for the secret of the innovative spirit has resulted in this delightfully diverse production that brings the reader to the very spots where some of Canada’s greatest art was conceived.

    Richly illustrated with reproductions of the original artwork by the Group of Seven and augmented with expressive text and absorbing photographs of the actual locations where these legendary paintings were created, the Waddingtons have created a journal of enduring images that document the lush landscapes, rugged countryside, and wondrous waters that help define us as Canadians. In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven explores and details the Waddingtons’ adventures, inviting us to travel with them into the wild, woods, and rivers and come face to face with the allusive muses that enlightened and enriched this renowned group of artists.

  • In the Frame

    In the Frame

    $19.95

    It’s 1998, and the staff of the newly re-branded Toronto Art Gallery (TAG) are preparing for an important fundraiser. There’s Rachel, a burned-out program coordinator whose narcissistic boss has her contemplating an early defection from the gallery once and for all. Then there’s Arthur, a mild-mannered curator who struggles to find his confidence and balance his professional goals with the whimsical demands of a comely donor. Amanda, shaken by unexpected incursions into her own curatorial purview, battles to regain control. Presiding over all is the director, George, whose ambitious expansion plans for the gallery tempt him to dabble in morally questionable behaviour to placate a key patron.

    When a scheduling conflict sees TAG committed to a camp for rambunctious children, a tour for art-loving naturists, and a gala for deep-pocketed philanthropists—all on the one calamitous night—egos and ambitions collide, and each member of the team must find a way to withstand the chaos, salvage their reputations, and chart a way forward.

    In the Frame is a riotous workplace satire that toys with the machinations of a fictional Toronto gallery and reveals some awkward truths about the Canadian art world in the process.

  • In The Garden of I Am

    In The Garden of I Am

    $20.00

    Although every poem in this book begins with the same first three words, each is a world unto itself. The poems range in subject from the intensely personal to the profoundly philosophical. Some poems are funny, some deadly serious; some filled with whimsy, some with horror. Stylistically, some poems relish the challenge of metered rhyme while others delight in the loopy unpredictable music of free verse?

  • In the Hands of Anubis

    In the Hands of Anubis

    $19.95

    Trevor Wallace, a tractor salesman with a lost childhood and a stalled relationship, is en route to Africa on business. In the Frankfurt airport he stumbles over the bag of Constance Ebenezer, a gregarious old lady who is travelling the world with extraordinary contraband in her luggage. Marooned briefly in Cairo together, these two unlikely companions embark on an emotional journey that turns Trevor’s predictable and well-ordered world upside down.

    Replete with coyotes, dog-headed gods and broken tractors, In the Hands of Anubis is a wonderfully playful exploration of human relationships and the unexpected guides we meet in life.

  • In The Hands of the Living God

    In The Hands of the Living God

    $18.95

    In the last decade of the fifteenth century, Venice was the queen city of Europe. For two hundred years her nobles controlled the trade of the East and the galleys brought the wealth up the Grand Canal and transshipped it along the trade routes of Europe.