Praise for Be With

“Caregiving for loved ones is a topic often left out of contemporary writing. In Be With, Mike Barnes lifts the curtain on his own experiences with dispatches to anonymous caregivers/loved ones living with the fallout of Alzheimers disease. This slim volume is filled with wisdom for the moments when caregivers may need it most—the long periods of uncertainty while waiting. While Be With may be directed to those who need it most, its in-depth look at human connection is relatable to anyone.” —Toronto Book Award Jury Citation

“Timely, lyrical, tough, accurate.” —Margaret Atwood

“Beautiful.” —CHCH-TV

“My heart lodged in my throat and my eyes stayed glassy over the brief duration of Be With: Letters to a Caregiver. It's a lovely, loving, and unflinching work ... He shares knowledge ("The truth is, there's no graceful way to take control of someone's life away from them") and he asks questions ("How much room in your own heart?") any caregiver must consider. He also asserts his primary insight: "But being with in person trumps all else. It's the one way of caring most likely to be right, and the least likely to be regretted.” —Toronto Star

“The particulars of Mary’s dementia give this brief book universal appeal. The author effectively humanizes himself as a man who has made errors, who wishes he had done things differently, and who has his own psychological burdens to bear...A book that tells the reader that you are not alone, whoever you are.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Barnes shares a tender exaltation...with a clear and melodic tenor; there’s poetry in his myriad introspections, and a willingness to put everything on the table, good, bad, and heart-wrenching. This is a powerful book for those who have experienced similar trials, regardless of length of time or severity.” —Publishers Weekly

“In their simplicity and even-handed tone, the letters achieve their author’s difficult aim: they present as a literary Third Man, a friendly, authoritative voice in the dark that will lead its at-the-end-of-their-tether listeners through to the endgame...What really matters, he concludes, is the hardest thing, being there with her. “For every thousand pages describing how living is shattered by this dread disease, there should be at least one page observing how living goes on within it.” Be With has 156 pages of them.” —Literary Review of Canada

“Powerful...the short, digestible letters are written with a realistic understanding of busy, exhausted caregivers' time and energy and stay true to the book's title, emphasizing the deceptively simple need to just "be with" - to witness, see, and accept. Poignant but never heavy-handed, it's a relevant and empathetic book that meets caregivers where they are.” —Open Book

Praise for Mike Barnes

“… fiercely alive, marked by a sharp, unerring eye for detail and a wonderful way with metaphors.” —Toronto Star

“His lucid prose brings to mind Poe’s Gothic horror, Hunter S. Thompson’s strangeness (without the drug-craze), and William Burroughs’ ellipsis (without the disintegration). But it is perhaps closest to Roald Dahl’s intimate exploration of human oddity and use of surprise in Switch Bitch.” —Globe and Mail

Praise for Man with a Seagull on His Head

“Every sentence in this book is perfect.” —Mary Cotton, Newtonville Books (Newton, MA)

“The power of portraiture animates Harriet Paige’s slim, elegant novel...The holy intensity of Ray’s vision stands out against the countless missed connections, distractions and estrangements that mark a life’s relationships. The book reminds us that a single act of attentiveness—of passionate noticing—can cause beauty to drop unexpectedly into the world.” —Wall Street Journal

“Graceful...provides deep introspections about loneliness and death...The novel’s charming, light tone nicely balances its powerful meditations on art and failed expectations.” —Publishers Weekly

“Elegiac...emotionally precise...not only pleasing to the eye, but also profoundly engaging to the heart. A gentle fable about the mystery of artistic creativity.” —Kirkus

“Paige explores the need for her characters to prove their existence...a new and exciting voice worth watching closely.” —Library Journal

“An unusual meditation on art and life...The small moment with the seagull ripples into large impacts across many lives in untidy ways that are nonetheless compelling and honest.” —Booklist

“Funny, sharp, engaging and beautifully written...a precious and strange thing. A bona fide gem.” —The Guardian

“This debut novel—original, eccentric, with all manner of unusual perspectives—is itself an example of outsider art at its idiosyncratic best.” —Toronto Star

“Will stay with you just as a puzzling but beautiful dream lingers in your conscious mind.” —Winnipeg Free Press “

Quiet, spooky and very good . . . It's sometimes terribly sad, sometimes hilarious, sometimes absurdist, but always somehow completely believable. Beyond the narrative, the novel is about art, connections and missed chances, the complications of family and the mysterious workings of the human brain.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Acutely observed and generously imagined this portrait of an accidental artist is as surprising as it is enthralling. It gripped me from the first page. Its last lines are still with me, shimmering with wise promise.” —Maureen Freely

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize 2018, Winner

Praise for Dear Evelyn

“A smartly written portrait of a marriage that is true to life, has depth and detail, and is sometimes sweet and sometimes painful...the characters linger long afterwards and are likely to leave readers with either a tear in their eye or a lump in the throat.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“The detail, the nuance, and the vitality of the scenes, while disconcerting, is also supremely detailed but never overwhelming with pages of minutia...Harry and Evelyn come together for an instant, repel one another over this or that, strive to find their better selves and their compassion and their once rich love; and then, with a harsh word or passing mood, they’re back to marital warfare. It’s a heartbreaking depiction, if only because it’s so enduring: these two are bound by family, by obligation, by history, and even by a steady if off-kilter and declining love.” —Vancouver Sun

“Page charts the emotional shifts that take place over the course of their marriage, from first flush of love to old age, with subtlety and sensitivity.” —Booklist

“Though a familiar tale, it’s sharply drawn and told with an alertness to cliche ...[T]he concluding scenes, while sadly inevitable, are quietly devastating. ” —Daily Mail Online

“I know of no contemporary writer who deals so convincingly with love. Page consistently dramatizes the ways in which the feelings of intimate couples are puzzling mixtures of hope, lust, genuine caring, resentment, politics, and much else...ambitious and profoundly resonant.” —Ormsby Review

“Dear Evelyn has a wonderful, effortless sweep...Page is able to contain a century; two wars; two fully realized, flawed and complicated people; a rich and tumultuous marriage; so much love; and the pride, rage and resentment that keeps so much from ever being properly expressed.” —Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This

“[Page] has flown largely under the radar of publishing journalism while also writing damned good books...Page is a magician at evoking a sense of past-ness, and her characterisation is extraordinarily skillful and tender: both Evelyn and her husband Harry can be extremely difficult, but the reader understands and feels for them both. Exceptional work.” —Elle Thinks

“A beautifully written story about a long marriage with a heart-tugging ending.” —Literary Hoarders

“A richly textured story that feels authentic to each period, without ever getting bogged down in too many details or historical facts ... Relayed with compassion, and incisive writing.” —Gulf Islands Driftwood

“A novel that will fill your heart, and break it, too.” —The Parry Sound

Praise for Kathy Page

"A vivid portrayal...mesmerizing. [Page] writes with compassion, tenderness and a deep intelligence." —Prairie Fire

Praise for Randy Boyagoda

“Gleaming ... Through his protagonist’s long and eventful life, Randy Boyagoda explores themes of shifting identity, of the diamond-hard determination to evade one’s destiny and of the inner landscapes of an island that itself undergoes a dramatic transformation ... an ambitious book that seeks to convey the sweep of history through the prism of one island. The lush style of Boyagoda’s prose suits the novel.” —The New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)

“The Evelyn Waugh of the North.” —Books-in-Canada

“Governor of the Northern Province’s humour and liveliness are in welcome contrast to the dreary earnestness of so many similar books” —Quill & Quire

“Boyagoda, a sharp and subtle writer, slips easily into many different characters’ heads and their internal rhythms, and lyrical lines abound … A satirical feast.” —The Globe and Mail

“a multifaceted, engrossing story… Prepare for a verbal feast that will thoroughly entertain and satisfy, yet leave you hungering for more.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Praise for Madame Victoria

“An unnerving series of portraits . . . both intimately personal and bound to universal elements of mortality, physicality, and femaleness . . . [Leroux] expertly probes fallible, achingly human characters to form a portrait of a lost woman and examine the fragile forces that underlie a life. Gorgeously written, unsettling, and well worth the read.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Leroux is a fearless writer who invokes fable with sure-footed confidence ... The end result is a novel that packs a star’s density of rage and love into its pages, a delicate and unflinching look at the impossibilities of womanhood that is nothing short of incandescent. A testament to the power of fable and myth, Madame Victoria is a triumphant feat of storytelling.” —Quill & Quire (starred review)

“Fun is a word that comes up often when Leroux is talking about her work and its process, but there’s nothing frivolous implied . . . It’s the kind of fun that comes with full creative engagement, with choosing seldom-trod paths and arriving in places you might not have thought you’d reach . . . [Madame Victoria] confirms the 39-year-old Montrealer as one of Canada’s best and most adventurous writers.” —Montreal Gazette

“[K]aleidoscopic, expansive fiction about connections and possibilities.” —Globe & Mail

“Equal parts compelling and unsettling . . . Even as Leroux’s descriptions depart from our expectations and reaches for the strange or the surreal or for the unfamiliar emotional landscape, the Victorias’ stories are resonant and disorienting.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“As a follow-up to her Giller Prize-nominated novel The Party Wall, [Madame Victoria] reinforces Leroux’s unique ability to bring unsettling moments to life, bending our sense of reality to accommodate all manner of strange possibility. In yet another masterful translation by Lazer Lederhendler, the reader is both swept away by the beauty of the writing, and captivated by the repeated unravelling of Victoria.” —Montreal Review of Books

“Lazer Lederhendler’s English translation . . . sparks and simmers with numinous prose, allowing Victoria to emerge as a guiding star, the one constant in a shimmering landscape . . . Madame Victoria honors all women on the margins, all women dismissed by society. It tempts us to reconsider the ways in which we think of victims, showing us that if we listened, there is much they could teach us about ourselves.” —Arkansas International

“An imaginative, haunting, and insightful examination of the lives of women...absorbing and often poignant, Madame Victoria is an achievement, both as a mystery about the missing identity of one woman and in its portrayal of women’s lives more broadly.” —Foreword Reviews

“A unique and inherently fascinating approach to narrative storytelling, and ably translated into English by Lazer Lederhendler . . . unreservedly recommended.” —Midwest Book Review

Praise for Catherine Leroux

“…superbly crafted…Leroux skillfully reveals the inner worlds of her achingly human characters and the intricate bonds that connect them to each other. Images from this beautiful and moving book will haunt readers.” —Publishers Weekly

“…full of insightful passages, dynamic characters and surprising situations. The Party Wall is a searching investigation of familial ties of biology and biography and the complex ways in which self-discovery affects our relationships.” —The Winnipeg Review

“Initially, The Party Wall reads like a collection of linked stories; past the halfway mark, however, it reveals itself as something more intricate and cumulative… A surprising, carefully structured novel that for English readers will bring to mind David Mitchell, this feels much more expansive than its page count.” —The Globe and Mail

“A revelation… an emotionally affecting, intellectually stimulating examination of separation and connection.”—Ian McGillis, Montreal Gazette

Scotiabank Giller Prize 2019, Long-listed
Governor General's Award 2019, Short-listed
Trillium Award 2019, Short-listed
Toronto Book Award 2019, Short-listed

Praise for Late Breaking

“[K.D. Miller's] stories are sharp, memorable and sometimes harsh. She’s particularly good on sex, and the infinitely variable meanings of sex. Once I had read a few of her stories, nothing could stop me from reading the rest. Miller is obviously a careful, imaginative and deeply empathic author.”—National Post

"A deft, nuanced, and human collection of stories. K.D. Miller's gaze catches both humour and darkness in a wide variety of relationships. A thoroughly captivating book."—Rebecca Rosenblum

"An undercurrent of the surreal pulses through 10 linked stories...sensitive portrayals of the fragility of love and ubiquity of need." —Kirkus Reviews "

If K.D. Miller had produced nothing other than “The Last Trumpet,” the opening entry in this collection of linked stories, she would still have a place on any list of this year’s best fiction. Taking up themes of aging, loneliness, and regret, “The Last Trumpet” is one of the saddest, most affecting pieces of short fiction to appear in this country in recent memory. But that story is just the first blast in a collection that is consistently engaging and assured. The stories in Late Breaking—loosely tied together by recurring characters, a focus on aging and death, and the paintings of Alex Colville—are moving and beautifully written." —Steven W. Beattie

"In Miller’s capable hands . . . familiar themes become fresh, even raw, pulsing with sexuality and longing and anger or casting a cold eye on all the preoccupations of a younger self in a younger world . . . Late Breaking is by turns tender, comic (a number of the characters are writers, which offers opportunity for satire), sad, uncompromising, horrifying and redemptive. The Gothic (think Shirley Jackson and William Faulkner) is never far away. Best of all, for all the seeming familiarity of its themes, the stories are never predictable. Never." —Minneapolis Star Tribune

"In some stories, Miller takes off from the narrative suggestion of a specific painting. In others, she builds from the sense of relationship between people or simply the tone Colville of what depicted. The end result feels like a comprehensive narrative, the characters linked by more than their source material. A real standout." —Jade Colbert, Globe and Mail

"Miller's attentiveness . . . is touching . . . The stories themselves are rich with coherence, meaning, and suggestion, and part of what makes them so satisfying is the space they leave free for us to engage with them and find our own interpretation." —Quill & Quire

"Compulsively readable. Like an Alex Colville painting . . . the longer you look, you realize there's something darker going on underneath the surface. My favourite book so far this fall." —CBC Ontario Morning

"Each of the 10 stories is introduced by a haunting Colville image . . . These paintings, through mood and theme, serve as prompts for the stories, with characters often wandering in from one verbal canvas to another. Refreshingly, the stories feature people in their 60s experiencing big fat emotions that younger writers often deny them." —Toronto Star

"These are all rich and absorbing stories on their own, but even richer for how they also inform each other . . . K.D. Miller’s fiction seems to conjure whole worlds, with characters who seem to walk off the page . . . We get glimpses of these people, but they’re like the tip of an iceberg and there’s so much more going on beneath the surface. Which is something you could say about the people in Colville’s paintings too, and about each of these stories themselves, compelling and disturbing, and impossible to look away from, creating the most terrific momentum." —Kerry Clare

"These stories plumb the depths of sadness and despair but never lose sight of their obverse: the quiet resilience and dignity of the human spirit, which doesn’t fade with age." —Hamilton Review of Books

"These stories are brilliant and addictive and I wanted them to last forever."—Consumed by Ink

"A fabulous book." —CHCH-TV Morning Live

Praise for Best Canadian Stories 2018

“A splendid collection.” —Quill & Quire

"Best Canadian Stories 2018 combines both emerging and established voices for a fascinating glimpse at the most exciting short fiction coming out of this country." —Open Book

Praise for Best Canadian Stories

“The arrival, late in the fall each year, of [this] collection is always cause for fanfare.” —Quill & Quire

“The legacy of this series is massive… a literary institution.” —Ottawa Citizen

Praise for Russell Smith

“A poisonously funny portrait of the so-hip-it-hurts fashion, food, and bar scene.” —Maclean’s

“Smith, a long-time Globe and Mail columnist, is a gifted anthropologist of the urbane. Those gifts are on full display throughout Confidence.” —The Globe and Mail

Praise for Best Canadian Stories 2018

“A splendid collection.” —Quill & Quire

"Best Canadian Stories 2018 combines both emerging and established voices for a fascinating glimpse at the most exciting short fiction coming out of this country." —Open Book

Praise for Best Canadian Stories

“The arrival, late in the fall each year, of [this] collection is always cause for fanfare.” —Quill & Quire

“The legacy of this series is massive… a literary institution.” —Ottawa Citizen

Praise for Russell Smith

“A poisonously funny portrait of the so-hip-it-hurts fashion, food, and bar scene.” —Maclean’s

“Smith, a long-time Globe and Mail columnist, is a gifted anthropologist of the urbane. Those gifts are on full display throughout Confidence.” —The Globe and Mail

Praise for Finding Again the World

“Masterful...Harsh reality, hope, and caricature mingle in this tour de force. As Metcalf says in his previous book, "Writing is very hard work but at the same time it is delightful play." An exceptional collection.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A delight to read...[Metcalf] submerges the reader completely into the universe of his writing...Every character is deeply authentic and each setting is described with striking imagery. Metcalf’s writing is impossible to forget and his stories will feel as if they’ve become a part of you—or rather, as if you have become a part of them...Metcalf is a crucial figure to Canadian writing and the Canadian community as a whole.” —The Charlatan

Praise for Bad Imaginings

"Bad Imaginings is the sort of book that stays with a reader long after it has been closed. A singular book, deep and mature. Caroline Adderson deserves congratulations."—Globe & Mail

"There is very little in Adderson's first short story collection that is not excellent . . . Each of these stories is accomplished in its own unexpected way; I find it impossible to pick a favourite." —Quill & Quire

"Astonishing . . . Adderson writes from so many perspectives that she seems to pirouette over territory that few writers would dare approach . . . These often funny and always adventurous stories are deeply felt and wildly imagined tributes to our own fragile, blinkered lives. And they fulfill the only real condition of art: they make you feel richer for having read them." —The Georgia Straight