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Super Secret Festival of Lit: First Fiction
It’s our second last day of Super Secret Festival of Lit mystery title reveals! With unforgettable characters and poetically beautiful prose, our first fiction pick is the perfect novel to gift to someone you love. Buy any one of our first fiction picks from now until December 18th and receive a free set of four CanLit holiday cards.Drum roll please…
What It’s About
Henry lives a very contained life – he works at a job he hates, his girlfriend left him, and his brother is unreliable; his only solace is his hobby of rebuilding the skeletons of birds and animals. With his brother becoming increasingly absent, Henry is forced to begin engaging with the people around him in new ways. Learn more.Why We Chose It
While extremely beautifully written (Philips is an award-winning poet), the main reason we chose this title is that this story could be about anyone (maybe not the skeleton building hobby, but otherwise) – we’re all just trying to figure out how to navigate this world and when we have people around us who support us in participating in our own stories, we’re richer for it.*We’ve picked this one once before as a First Fiction Friday pick back in September when it first hit bookshelves.Who Would Love This Book
The Afterlife of Birds is quirky character-driven novel that will appeal to fiction readers who appreciate poetic precision in prose. It will also resonate with those that love reading about the prairie landscape.
In the author’s own words, The Afterlife of Birds should be read by: “anyone who likes a good story—or many good stories; anyone who has a difficult brother; anyone who has lost a parent too soon; anyone who likes very good sentences; anyone who thinks a penis bone is interesting and maybe a little goofy; anyone who likes bears; anyone who wants to see the earth as home; anyone curious about how birds can have an afterlife; anyone who likes birds; anyone who wonders if she is living the right life; anyone who wonders if he is living the right life; anyone who has made a romantic mistake; anyone mystified by the way we live now; anyone who wonders.”
Reviews & Media
Read a Q&A with Elizabeth Philips, and get the recipe for Mrs. Bogdanov’s Honey Cake here.
“The people around us are weird and [The Afterlife of Birds] celebrates the glory of that… the glory and complexity of people.” —Angie Abdou on CBC’s Daybreak Alberta
“Philips’ novel is a gift, her prose flawless, her characters endlessly engaging; the book itself offering us a new voice in fiction, one we should listen to with all our hearts.” —Patrick Lane, author of Red Dog, Red Dog* * *There’s more first fiction where that came from:
What It’s About
Payvand, an Iranian refugee, meets Ragusa, a Yugoslavian refugee, just as Ragusa is about to drown herself, unable to live any longer in a world where all those she loves have been taken. Payvand is able to at least postpone Ragusa’s suicide attempt by suggesting they share their stories with one another. What follows is a window into the wreckage caused by wars but also an offer of friendship and healing. Learn more.Why We Chose It
Amity, as Lisa de Nikolits wrote, is “an important book, a timely book that needs to be read and, read now.” Lisa interviewed Nasreen Pejvack as part of her Emerging Canadian Writers series for All Lit Up this past fall.Who Would Love This Book
Amity is for fans of women writers, first novels, and diasporic literature. But it is also for immigrant and refugee survivors who have fled their homes in the face of war, violence, and political conflict. Most, importantly, it should be required reading for all of us living in the West who cannot fathom what it is like to witness the destruction of our cities and homes and to see our loved ones murdered for international political agendas.
What It’s About
The town of Seep is in the process of being dismantled for redevelopment as a master-planned recreational townsite to complement a nearby First Nations casino. Dwight, who as the story goes was born on a baseball diamond during a dugout-clearing brawl between The Seep Selects and a team of barnstorming Cuban All Stars, returns to town only to witness his childhood home being moved down the highway on the back of a huge flatbed truck. In the face of the town’s erasure, Dwight tries to preserve its stories, and in so doing, comes to question his own. Learn more.Why We Chose It
In the vein of W.O. Mitchell, Giles has created a story about the Alberta prairie that is both nostalgic yet contemporary. After winning the Calgary Book Award for his short story collection, Knucklehead, we had high hopes for his debut novel: Seep is a prime example of how our sense of self and where we come from are intertwined in a big mess of complicated feelings. Which is to say, this is great fiction.Who Would Love This Book
Seep is a book for Canadian readers who enjoy literature about small-town Canada under threat by global pressures. If you’re the reader who roots for the small-town working class hero that fights to preserve their culture (whether worthy of the fight or not), then Seep is book for you!
What It’s About
Darby Swank lost her mother as a young girl and as a result she’s been intensely loyal to her remaining family. When her Aunt Bea is murdered Darby’s entire life is shaken; suddenly she’s questioning the people and places she’s always known. In the midst of fighting fires, herding cattle, and wrangling horses, Darby must consider that home isn’t always the safe haven she thought it was. Learn more.Why We Chose It
As Sharon Chisvin said in her review of Friendly Fire in the Winnipeg Free Press, “… Guenther knows smart and strong women, too, and in this novel she has created one in Darby Swank — even if Darby herself doesn’t know it.” Friendly Fire is a wonderful character study set against the backdrop of Canadian rural small-town life and the secrets they sometimes hold.Who Would Love This Book
Friendly Fire is for readers who like the works of Lynn Coady, Fran Kimmel, Suzette Mayr, Theanna Bischoff, and other writers of modern prairie stories. If you’re intrigued by the idea that there’s something else going on behind placid small-town veneers, or maybe just enjoy alt-country music, much like Darby in the novel, then Friendly Fire is for you.
What It’s About
Worlds collide in this story of two outsiders in 1980s New Brunswick: Darek and his family have recently moved to town from Communist Poland, where his father was jailed for being the local Solidarity leader; Eleanor is just trying to go about her business when a traumatic event changes the course of her life. When the two meet, a bond is forged through shared feelings of displacement and tragedy. Learn more.Why We Chose It
Mansfield Press is mainly a poetry publisher so when they announced they were publishing a debut novel we were expecting a story told with beautiful prose. They delivered with Live from the Underground, which won the David Adams Richards Prize for an earlier version of the manuscript.Who Would Love This Book
Appropriate for readers as young as fifteen, Live From the Underground will capture the hearts of readers interested in the drama of young love but want that drama to happen in an interesting and complex setting. The things Darek and Eleanor have to deal with may not be things that will happen to all of us but you’ll certainly recognize the emotions they experience. * * *We’re almost done revealing each of our eight mystery titles. If you’ve missed any of our holiday suggestions, get caught up on our Super Secret Festival of Lit here. Buy any one of these titles from now until December 18th and receive a free set of four CanLit holiday cards.
