When Anna and Sadie discover the diaries of their mother, Rebecca, in the days following her death, they learn that her life was far more complex than either of them knew: a garment worker in early-1900s New York; the reluctant wife in an arranged marriage to an ailing and abusive husband; the improbable friend of a pregnant prostitute. But the diaries reveal more than just surprising details about Rebecca’s life: they also point to a family se ...
Father Pat Cheyne, an unkempt, middle-aged priest on a lone canoe ride reflects on how these solitary meditations in his beloved canoe have marked his life. His thoughts reach back to his boyhood rejection of the boisterous ways of his father, just home from the war, to the memorable evening when he first prayed, eyes open, floating in a silent magic space with stars drenching the sky above and mirror lake below him. Even now, the canoe remains ...
Like any young man, Etienne longs for independence and dreams about a bright future. But he's a Tourangeau, part of a sprawling Quebec family that, though destitute, thrives as insecurely as weeds in a well-tended garden, nurtured by a mother whose abundant love is more than maternal. Then he meets Odile, a beautiful young woman from a good family who inspires Etienne to transform his future into something worthy of her. But, like Romeo and ...
The day Pauline sees Ramona’s mug shot in the paper, she knows she’s going to be called upon to relive the darkest period of her life. Charged with murder, Ramona and her husband, Jim, have also been accused of sexually abusing female victims for years in their home. And when the police discover a stash of scripts for disturbing plays performed years earlier by Pauline, Ramona, and Jim, Pauline becomes a key witness in the trial. Tell Everythi ...
Short-listed for the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize Best Book Award, Caribbean and Canada Region A man of innate taste and discrimination, Edward has become an art dealer and collector of fine antiques and paintings. During his first six idyllic years he was the centre and focus of his mother’s existence. Betrayals and unhappiness in subsequent years have led him to form almost fetishistic attachments to beautiful objects, as a substitute for ...
For Sylvie, Ragged Island – and the whales who swam around it – is the only world she has ever known. It is the place where she was born and raised, where she lived with her four late husbands, and where she plans to live out her remaining years. It is also the home to a community whose love for the island is immense. But when the Nova Scotia government decides to shut down the ferry service that is the lifeblood of Ragged Island, the residents ...
A translator, fed up with translating paperback romances, undertakes the translation of the autobiography of a sadistic serial killer, Leonard Ming. She travels from Canada to Spain to do her work, encountering love and death in the seaside Andalusian town of Almunecar. ...
From the author of The Winter Palace comes Eve Stachniak’s first novel about the discovery of secrets and lies that stitch together empires and individual lives. Winner of the 2000 Amazon.com/Books in Canada First Novel Prize Necessary Lies tells the story of the discovery of secrets and lies that stitch together empires and individual lives. What are the lies we tell ourselves and others that get us through our lives? In the summer of 198 ...
