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This novella charts with great comic exuberance the disasters which occur when Harry’s mother, her stepson Jackie Boy, stepdaughter Elaine, and her second husband, descend upon the household — and especially upon Harry’s wife, Alice.
In Marrow Memory Margaret Nowaczyk explores different facets of her life, from listening to the radio dramas of her childhood in Communist Poland to her work as a pediatric clinical geneticist.
These are beautifully crafted essays, full of hard-won truths and insights, generously shared with the reader. Whether struggling with English as a teenaged refugee or documenting the process of permanent hair dye, Nowaczyk moves seamlessly between scientific and personal writing, bridging the gap between these two areas with elegance and humour. Marrow Memory is an invitation to the reader to marvel in the unexpected beauties of human experience and the ability of language to capture that.
Winner, 2019 Relit Award (Novel Category)
For a guy who mugs people for their laptops, Tommy Marlo isn’t such a bad guy. He can’t help trying to make the people he meets — even those he mugs — feel better about their situation. Unfortunately for Tommy, he rips off the daughter of a psychotic, high-ranking member of a notorious motorcycle gang. Even worse, the laptop that he pilfered contains proof of a few gruesome murders and the location of a huge stash of money. Flat broke and marked for death, his only shot at surviving is to rob the motorcycle gang, use the cash to get out of town, and hide out on the small island where his mother now lives.
What follows is a revisionist crime thriller, a page-turning hybrid of literary and genre fiction for fans of Elmore Leonard or Patrick deWitt. But Battershill writes with a voice all his own. Deftly combining crackling dialogue with biting wit, MARRY, BANG, KILL hums with the thrill of chaos as Tommy runs to a quiet island to escape a swelling cast of characters who are trying to arrest, rob, kill, or save him. The island won’t be quiet for long.
Linda Leith’s memoir, Marrying Hungary, is the moving story of the daughter of Irish Communist parents who, after a peripatetic childhood, falls in love and marries a Hungarian refugee. It is a glimpse into a life spent among foreigners, a tale of identity and eventual independence. And it reveals what few memoirs reveal: what brings a couple together, what marriage means to an ambitious and accomplished woman, and why sometimes even a good marriage eventually fails.
Near the centre of Marrying the Animals, Cornelia Hoogland’s new book of poetry, is the sequence “In the Meantime: Elizabeth Smart Poems” Hoogland’s exploration of Smart’s obsession with the poet George Barker is an apt heart for this volume, for its abiding spirit is passion. With feather touch and “kelp green longing,” Hoogland pauses over the minutiae of the daily, of the loved. Her lyric intensity embraces family, friends, lovers and literature. Yet she never ignores the untameable passion that circumscribes both love and language, and shades the familiar into wilderness.
With time, I got better at seeing him off at the gate, the harbour; all the exits. It took days to rid the chair, cup, windowlight of his image. And then the long in-the-meantime learning chair, cup over again. from “In the Meantime: Elizabeth Smart Poems”
Written in the tradition of Peter Matthiessen’s classic The Wind Birds, Marshwalker: Naturalist Memoirs conveys the biological and behavioural intricacies of marsh life without dulling their romance and splendour. The memoir is a month-by-month study of a large prairie marsh with its many inhabitants. Weier’s meditative observation of birds and their cyclical existence is underscored by his own personal narrative. Marshwalker is both a book on the birds and wildlife of the marsh and a poetic exploration of the other intricacies of life. Reading the words of this earth-lover, we share his wonder at the quiet, profound beauty of the natural world.
In this third collection of poetry, Renee Norman inhabits Martha Quest like a spirit, and rewrites her through poems that bring her into being. Martha is Doris Lessing’s autobiographical protagonist from her Martha Quest series of novels, and Norman “borrows” Martha and encounters her in the mirror of writing. There she reflects upon, interprets, and reimagines Martha, at times addressing Lessing, too. But within–and in between–the lines and stanzas, she also encounters herself, as she is filtered through Martha’s reflection, the Martha who is in us all. Theses poems are about love and loss, birth and motherhood, longing and abandonment, and the compassion and understanding women can bring to one another.
A literary exploration of Martha Ostenso and Her Works.
Martial Music, George Amabile’s eleventh book and newest collection of poetry, explores the relationships between civilization, technology, empire and human violence, theatres of war, the collateral damage of military occupation, the machinations of power politics, oil spills, destruction of the environment, ptsd, and other characteristics of what we call ?world events.? These are tough poems for tough times?our times?when the human cost of military conflict, environmental disaster and gun violence have become the daily staple of news headlines. Provocative, unflinching and at times raw with the poet?s fury at unfathomable acts, Amabile?s poems converge as an urgent libretto against the militaristic tendencies that surround us, inciting a march toward the creation of a more peaceful and sincere world.
Finalist for the 2015 Giller Prize
Among The National Post’s Top 5 Books of 2015
Among The Toronto Star’s Top 5 Fiction Books of 2015
Among Largehearted Boy’s Favourite Novels of 2015
One of Quill & Quire’s Books of the Year, 2015
Among The Edmonton Journal’s Top 5 Books of 2015
A 49th Shelf Book of the Year, 2015
Among NOW Toronto’s Top 10 Books of 2015
Martin John’s mam says that she is glad he is done with it. But is Martin John done with it? He says he wants it to stop, his mother wants it to stop, we all want it to stop. But is it really what Martin John wants? He had it in his mind to do it and he did it. Harm was done when he did it. Harm would continue to be done. Who will stop Martin John? Will you stop him? Should she stop him?
From Anakana Schofield, the brilliant author of the bestselling Malarky, comes a darkly comic novel circuiting through the mind, motivations and preoccupations of a character many women have experienced but few have understood quite so well. The result confirms Schofield as one of the bravest and most innovative authors at work in English today.
At thirty-something, Matt suddenly finds himself looking for more than reckless flings with younger partners—he wants maturity and commitment. He meets Martin Yesterday, a middle-aged city councillor, and his prayer seems to be answered. Martin, however, is not always forthcoming about his private affairs, and holds some very dark secrets.
Absurdity reigns in multiple award-winning author and playwright Clem Martini’s newest collection of work, Martini with a Twist–five plays spanning two decades of Martini’s career, from 1989 to 2009.
A lonely elephant handler befriends the half-blind woman who drove through his yard, a severed head in a suitcase life support system is given a second chance at life, a quiet shut-in wrestles with the jealous ghost of his wife, a young woman with the ability to smell lies struggles to make new friends, and a mismatched pod of whales in the Pacific Ocean struggle with identity, love, and interspecies dating. With a sharp tongue and impeccable comedic timing, Martini’s characters resonate beyond their impossible situations, their fears and hesitations all too human.
‘All of Nichol’s work is stamped by his desire to create texts that are engaging in themselves as well as in context, and to use indirect structural and textual devices to carry meaning. In The Martyrology different ways of speaking testify to a journey through different ways of being. Language is both the poet’s instructor and, through its various permutations, the dominant ‘image’ of the poem. The [nine] books of The Martyrology document a poet’s quest for insight into himself and his writing through scrupulous attention to the messages hidden in the morphology of his own speech.’ – Frank Davey
‘All of Nichol’s work is stamped by his desire to create texts that are engaging in themselves as well as in context, and to use indirect structural and textual devices to carry meaning. In The Martyrology different ways of speaking testify to a journey through different ways of being. Language is both the poet’s instructor and, through its various permutations, the dominant ‘image’ of the poem. The [nine] books of The Martyrology document a poet’s quest for insight into himself and his writing through scrupulous attention to the messages hidden in the morphology of his own speech.’ – Frank Davey
All of Nichol’s work is stamped by his desire to create texts that are engaging in themselves as well as in context, and to use indirect structural and textual devices to carry meaning. In The Martyrology different ways of speaking testify to a journey through different ways of being. Language is both the poet’s instructor and, through its various permutations, the dominant ‘image’ of the poem. The [nine] books of The Martyrology document a poet’s quest for insight into himself andhis writing through scrupulous attention to the messages hidden in the morphology of his own speech.’ – Frank Davey
A sardonic, feminist reimagining of the story of Mary Toft, infamous rabbit-birthing hoaxer.
Mary Toft was just another eighteenth-century woman living in poverty, misery, and frequent pain. The kind of person overlooked by those with power, forgotten by historians.
Mary Toft was nothing. Until, that is, Mary Toft started giving birth to rabbits…
Sensational debut novelist Noémi Kiss-Deáki reimagines Mary’s strange and fascinating story – and how she found fame when a large swath of England became convinced that she was the mother of rabbits.
Mary and the Rabbit Dream is a story of bodily autonomy, of absurdity, of the horrors inflicted on women, of the cruel realities of poverty, and the grotesque divides between rich and poor. A story told with exquisite wit, skill, and a beautiful streak of subversive mischief.
“Noémi Kiss-Deáki’s style is astonishing – hypnotic, poetic, persistent, wild, blazing and marvellous. As the novel unfolds you simply can’t believe what is happening – it’s outrageous, it’s cruel, it’s unfathomable and yet – it’s the way of the world. Here is Mary Toft’s tale, retold in dazzling prose that is both exquisite and furious. Noémi reimagines the possibilities for historical fiction and Mary and the Rabbit Dream is utterly original and utterly brilliant.” – Victoria MacKenzie, author of For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain
“One of those novels that seemingly arrives from nowhere, fully formed, as odd, disturbing, and lingering as the most vivid of fever dreams. To create something so playfully provocative, subversive and gripping displays a rare literary talent. I’ve never read anything like it.” – Benjamin Myers, author of The Gallows Pole
“In Mary and the Rabbit Dream, Noémi Kiss-Deáki transforms the tale of Mary Toft into a stinging, witty critique of the oppressions heaped upon the bodies of impoverished women. This is a brave debut, one told with courage and wit, one which dissects a ruthless system of class and gender – and lays bare the concentric circles of power that still govern our world.” – Selby Wynn Schwartz, author of After Sappho
“I loved Mary and the Rabbit Dream – a sprightly but savage tale that re-imagines the real-life case of Mary Toft, who, in 1726, supposedly started giving birth to rabbits … It’s a supple, smartly self-conscious and ingenious take on the historical novel.” – Lucy Scholes, editor of A Different Sound: Stories by Mid-Century Women Writers
“A tense, nightmarish book about power and incarnation. … Stylish, visceral, incandescent.” – Clare Pollard, author of Delphi
“Mary and the Rabbit Dream casts the curious early-eighteenth–century story of Mary Toft in a totally fresh light. This is a furious, vituperative story about class, poverty, violence, and women’s bodies.” – Stu Hennigan, author of Ghost Signs