By Katherena Vermette, 2016 A first novel, this book by a Winnipeg writer was nominted for the Governor General’s Literary Award. In terms of language, characters and structure, it is about as close to perfect as a work of literature can be. On a bitterly cold night in Winnipeg’s North End a thirteen-year-old girl named […]

By Viet Thanh Nguyen, 2015 This is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. After reading it twice, I am in awe of the writer. The bulk of the novel is the written confession of a double agent. A committed though mostly undercover communist, he escapes Saigon with the General […]

By Anita Rau Badami, 2006 Anita Rau Badami is an author I keep coming back to. Years ago I read Tamarind Mem in a book club and remember no details, only that it was gripping, beautifully told story. Last year I was so impressed by the discussion of The Hero’s Walk on Canada Reads on […]

Like many readers, I have been following the discussion resulting from the findings of the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network (APTN) that literary superstar Joseph Boyden has no verifiable indigenous ancestry. Any person whose ancestors have lived here for a century or more likely has at least some aboriginal blood. Of course all human blood is […]

By Catherine Merridale, 2006 Around half a million Allied military personnel died in World War Two. These Allied personnel had the advantage—or disadvantage in some senses—of dying far from home. The corresponding number of Soviet deaths was about eight and a half million, and much of the war was fought on home ground. Many of […]

James Daschuk, 2013 A couple of years ago I was led to this book through Candace Savage’s A Geography of Blood. After the emotionally draining experience of reading these two takes on the same tragedy, I had to turn away for a while to more cheerful reading or at least to horrors that happened farther […]

By Rithy Panh with Christophe Bataille, 2013 The Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh lived through the Khmer Rouge nightmare as a boy between the ages of 13 and 17. In this book scenes of his boyhood are interspersed with adult commentary about and interviews with Comrade Duch as a prisoner on trial. Duch was the commander […]

By Richard Wagamese, 2014 Great Expectations, Fugitive Pieces, The Lizard Cage and Bel Canto are among my favourite novels because they depict an adult taking on a parental role with a child who is not biologically related. Richard Wagamese’s book deals with this same theme.   Medicine Walk is the story of a boy named […]

By Eric Lomax, 1995 Apologies for my long absence from this blog. Besides being busy with gardening and grandchildren, I have had months of computer problems. These have been alleviated by having Windows 10 removed from my computer and going back to Windows 7. I hope this is the beginning of a return to more […]