Books You Might Have Missed – Let’s Fix That!
Breakwater Books is an award-winning independent publisher in Newfoundland and Labrador. Known for championing stories rooted in place, history, and lived experience, Breakwater’s catalogue spans poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and more that reflects the textures of life in Newfoundland and beyond.
Here are a few backlist titles to add to your TBR!
Melt by Heidi Wicks
Melt is the debut novel by Hiedi Wicks, whose follow-up book of short stories, Here, released in 2025 to great success! A pandemic release from 2020, Heidi was finally able to celebrate the release of both of her books in public recently. Melt is the story of two best friends: Jess, a sensitive creature of habit, and the passionate and impulsive Cait — following them through their teenage years of drifting desires and fake tans to their late thirties and all the turbulence, grief, loss, and love in between. Shifting radiantly between the late nineties and the present day, Melt explores the life-sustaining anatomy of friendship and the complex relationships we have with our pasts.
Even Weirder Than Before by Susie Taylor
Susie Taylor’s sophomore book, the short story collection Vigil, has been highly acclaimed — winner of the 2025 BMO Winterset Award, winner of the 2025 Alistair MacLeod Award for Short Fiction, and finalist for the 2025 Thomas Radall Atlantic Fiction Award. But her debut novel Even Weirder Than Before deserves just as much recognition. In this refreshingly perceptive and honest novel, Susie Taylor’s quick-witted prose probes the nature of family, friendships, and sexual awakenings. Following Daisy as her world turns upside down after her father’s sudden departure and her mother’s breakdown, it navigates Daisy’s family cataclysm, relationships with boys, and her increasingly confusing feelings towards girls.
The Weather Diviner by Elizabeth Murphy
The Weather Diviner is Elizabeth Murphy’s second novel. Set in a tragic, transformative year in an extraordinary place with larger-than-life characters, The Weather Diviner is a story of self-discovery — not just for one young woman, but for the province of Newfoundland itself. In 1942, the Americans have come to defend Newfoundland’s highly strategic location, and they have brought with them new avenues of opportunity. Like thousands of others, Violet abandons her remote outport home and heads to St. John’s, determined to help the Americans fight the enemy as a forecaster with a powerful sixth sense for the island’s tempestuous winds and weather. The Weather Diviner is carefully crafted and heartfelt — and is one of only four Canadian authors nominated for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award!
Some People’s Children by Bridget Canning
Some People’s Children is Bridget Canning’s second novel (preceded byThe Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes in 2017, and followed up by the short story collection No One Knows About Us in 2022). Another pandemic release in 2020, Some People’s Children is a revealing and liberating novel about the way others look at us and the power of self-discovery. Imogene Tubbs has never met her father, and raised by her grandmother, she only sees her mother sporadically. But as she grows older, she learns that many people in her small, rural town believe her father is Cecil Jesso, the local drug dealer — a man both feared and ridiculed. It’s the perfect time to read Bridget’s backlist titles before her fourth book is published in 2026 (spoiler alert!).
Eyes in Front When Running by Willow Kean
Willow Kean’s debut novel Eyes in Front When Running is the perfect New Year read. It is witty and sharp and uses humour to tackle heavy topics — it is a book about the collision of fear and longing, and how the thing you fear the most is often the one thing you need to set you straight. Eyes in Front When Running is a family drama centred by an uncommon female protagonist whose relationship with her partner crumbles under the stress of trying for a baby. When Cleo moves back in with her parents, a series of bad decisions turns her life upside-down, but somehow sets it right at the same time — she gets the fella in the end, but not the one you’re expecting.
And, Willow has just been cast as a lead in a new high-profile Netflix series set in Newfoundland alongside Josh Hartnett (Oppenheimer), Mackenzie Davis (Station Eleven), and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things)!
The Blue Moth Motel by Oliva Robinson
Olivia Robinson’s novel The Blue Moth Motel is a haunting and evocative exploration of the meaning of family and home. Ingrid and Norah have an unconventional upbringing, raised in a motel by their mother and her female partner. When a new owner takes over, everyone’s nervous, but Ada teaches the girls music. Years later in England, studying to be a soloist, Ingrid loses her voice and is facing a crossroads when Norah decides to revive a party that began during their childhood to celebrate the arrival of mysterious and elusive blue moths.
Olivia is currently working on a new project with a haunting backstory that presents questions of truth, perception, and deception — we’re reading The Blue Moth Motel while we eagerly await this new story!
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Thanks to Rebecca Roberts at Breakwater Books for sharing this list of backlist beauties. 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.
