The Death of Annie the Water Witcher By Lightning by Audrey J. Whitson
Published in 2019, The Death of Annie the Water Witcher By Lightning tells the story of Majestic, Alberta, a small farming town dealing with depressed crop prices, international borders closing to Canadian beef, and severe drought. Even the church is on the brink of closing. When local woman Annie Gallagher is struck by lightning while divining water for a well, stories of the town’s past, including that of Annie and the grandmother who taught her water witching, slowly pour forth as everyone gathers for her funeral. This book is told through various voices and perspectives of townspeople and Annie herself. A finalist for the 2020 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, this has long been an office favourite and one our most recommended titles when we are at book fairs. It’s a pretty special book!
Hold Your Tongue by Matthew Tétreault
Matthew Tétreault’s Hold Your Tongue is ahead of its time! Written in phenomenally controlled prose, Tétreault brings readers deep into the world of one family in Saint-Anne, Manitoba. With interwoven language to mirror the voices of those who live in the community, English, French, and Michif are spoken throughout and translations are all done contextually. There is no attempt to make this novel easier for the colonial reader, it is about preserving language and identity as those resonant echoes of colonialism resound throughout this small community. It is about love, family, finding your place in the world, failure, and the historical silence inflicted on Métis people through their history. And it’s funny. It is brilliant—in every sense of the word.
The Lund Sibling Series by Karen Hofman:
What Is Going to Happen Next
A Brief View From the Coastal Suite
Where We Live
You’ve heard of a musician’s musician? Karen is a writer’s writer. Her trilogy of Vancouver-based novels, depicting the lives of the Lund siblings, separated in childhood, placed in foster care, group homes, or adopted, and reconnecting as adults, delve unflinchingly into the heart of urban life. Economic instability, family dysfunction, mental health and existential crisis, Hoffman’s characters are fully fleshed out human beings that live inside the pages. These books are about family, love, relationships in all their forms, socioeconomic instability, housing markets, and asking ourselves what we actually want to make ourselves actually happy, even if that is not what we “should” want. It’s a trilogy that bridges generational gaps of readers, perfect for a book club or discussing with a family member. We were sad when this trilogy ended—we wanted to know more about the Lunds!
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Thanks to NeWest Press for sharing these can’t-miss titles from their backlist. You can order any of these books through All Lit Up, or click the “Shop Local” button on the book listings to discover them at your local indie bookstore.
