About Face

Edited by Douglas Gosse

About Face: Essays on Addictions, Recovery, Therapies, and Controversies seeks to broaden the conversation around addiction in Canada. Featuring essays by a diverse group of writers, About Face delves into the major categories of addiction: drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, ... Read more

Clearly Now, the Rain

By Eli Hastings

“A drug, romance, and adventure-filled exploration … a story that is both thoroughly of its time and timeless in theme. ” — Seattle Times

From ill-advised quests for narcotics to dramatic summer road trips, this memoir of a relationship with a self-destructive woman ... Read more

From Cell to Sanity

By Paul Lapointe

For almost fifty years Paul LaPointe wondered what was wrong with him while he struggled with the consequences of undiagnosed bi-polar disorder. He lost relationships, lived a life of extremes and cycled in and out of jail as a result of his bizarre behaviour. While his memoir, ... Read more

Holden After and Before

By Tara McGuire

Holden After and Before is a moving meditation on grief: a stunning book that traces Tara McGuire's excavation and documentation of the life path of her son Holden, a graffiti artist who died of an accidental opioid overdose at the age of twenty-one. Beginning with Holden's death ... Read more

Kid Rex

By Laura Moisin

Kid Rex is the story of one woman’s struggle to overcome anorexia. After knowing other friends with anorexia and being baffled by their behavior (often wondering, ?Why doesn’t she just eat?!”) Moisin suddenly found herself prone to the same disease, not eating at all and ... Read more

On Opium

By Carlyn Zwarenstein

A groundbreaking meditation on pain, painkillers, and dependence from a prescription opioid user.

Her writing has been described as "measured," "sensuous," and "compelling. " In 2016, Carlyn Zwarenstein’s short narrative on pain made the Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books. ... Read more

Shop Class Hall Pass

By Karin Martel

Karin Martel had never considered what happened to her in ninth grade shop class as sexual abuse. So when she is in a regularly scheduled, routine session with the department therapist to talk through the stress of her job as a 911 operator, she surprises herself by suddenly ... Read more

Snow Bodies

By Elizabeth Hudson

From her own harrowing experience Hudson graphically renders the deadly underbelly of society and her descent into the abyss of drug addiction and prostitution. In direct prose, without fear, shame or explanation, and without imposing hindsight or societal values onto her narrative, ... Read more

The Captain Was a Doctor

By Jonathon Reid

A Canadian medical officer and prisoner of war returns from the Second World War a hero — and a very different man.
In August 1941, John Reid, a young Canadian doctor, volunteered to join the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps with four friends from medical school. After five ... Read more

The World at My Back

By Thomas Melle
Translated by Luise von Flotow

A writer's wrenching, no-holds-barred confession about his experiences with bipolar disorder.

Addicted to culture, author Thomas Melle has built up an impressive personal library. His heart is in these books, and he loves to feel them at his back, their promise and challenge, ... Read more