The Family that Conquered Everest
A fast-paced and engaging story that takes the reader on a remarkable family journey from the flatlands of suburbia to the top of the world.
Climbing Mount Everest is one of humanity’s greatest feats of physical, emotional and psychological endurance. In 2008 Alan Mallory and his family took on the challenge and became the first family of four to …
Stepping into Traffic
When we meet Sebastian (Seb) he is already taking risks and putting himself in harm’s way as he and a couple of his friends carry out a failed break and enter and are arrested. As we get to know Seb we discover his life has been a series of bad foster experiences that have left him numb to the memories of his dead parents, and poor in his judgeme …
Disturbing the Buddha
Disturbing the Buddha, Barry Dempster's fifteenth collection, is disarmingly conversational and, like the best conversations, it moves between reverence and irreverence, sincerity and irony as it grapples with love, loss, loneliness and simple lack of luck--the "three-leaf clovers" so much more plentiful than the four. Dempster's wit and playful me …
Smoke and Mirrors
If you read the papers and listen to the “experts,” you’ve heard the usual pitches about retirement: you’ll need a million dollars so you better start an RRSP early and maximize your contributions, trust the stock market and mutual funds for the best returns and put your faith in a financial advisor. But what if this advice is wrong? By rea …
Unleashed
Jace has it all—money, cars and status. What he doesn’t have is a happy home life.
Forced to protect his brother from an abusive father and a neglectful mother, Jace lives a double life on the wrong side of the tracks, learning to box and trying to survive on his own merits while plotting to expose his father as the monster he is. Working reluc …
Burned
Two years ago, Josie Smith’s life went up in smoke.
Literally. Everyone and everything she ever loved burned in a fire—one set by a crooked cop. To survive, Josie’s been living under the radar as a homeless kid while trying to find a way to knock the cop down a few notches and put her on the other side of the prison bars. But time’s running …
Loving That Cowboy
Trisha Watts has a past she’d rather forget. She lost a career and nearly her life in an accident that sapped her confidence and haunts her dreams. The world famous Calgary Stampede presents a welcome diversion, but her past catches up with her in a way she could never have imagined. One more big rodeo win will fulfill all champion steer wrestler …
6 Essential Questions
6 Essential Questions tells the story of Renata as she travels to Brazil to reunite with the mother who abandoned her when she was just five years old. In Rio, Renata discovers more than she bargained for in her quest to uncover the truth of who abandoned whom. She is continually tossed about by her undead grandmother and a semi-invisible uncle as …
Innocent
After the orphanage she lives in is destroyed by fire, Betty, an innocent and trusting teen, takes a job as a maid in Kingston, Ontario. Welcomed into the household of the wealthy Remington clan, Betty makes friends with the staff at the house and soon discovers that her mother had also been a maid there—and that her father is in a nearby jail, c …
Back to the Well
Shortlisted for the Donner Prize and the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award
Droughts, floods, and contamination of fresh water in the american Southwest, in the Great Lakes region, in Australia, in northern china, in the Middle East, and in India have broguht the critical issue of water supply to the forefront of public consciousness. In dozens of …
I.O.U. Dead
Keno is twenty-three, a high-school dropout working as a rent collector for a slum landlord. Apart from hitting on the office secretary, Cass, his life is bleak. His job takes him into sad, mean places where kids wail, drunks fight and women get beaten up. He works his territory with Jaco, who’s tougher and shiftier than any of the folks they’r …
Divided Dreams
Rob Grantlan has given up medicine to become an author. As a Gemini, having two careers seems just right. His quiet days are overturned by the death of his wayward sister and his taking guardianship of his two month old niece. When he learns the father of the infant is his old flame Andi Sherman’s brother a plan unfolds. Years ago, he hurt her. H …
Hand Me Down Bride
To help her impoverished family, Sophie agrees to marry a wealthy older in far off America. Less than twenty-four hours after she arrives in German’s Mill, Pennsylvania, events have taken a far stranger turn than anything she could have imagined. Set in Post-Civil-War Pennsylvania, this tale of an arranged marriage is as much family saga as roman …
Angel's Flight
Angelica is a Patriot heiress, stalked by a brutal, fortune-hunting British officer. She is forced to trust Jack, the mystery man who pledges to take her on a dangerous war-time journey up river to her Albany home, she expects to encounter brigands, Tories and Indians. What she doesn’t expect is to lose her heart along the way.
Grant and Tillie Go Walking
Grant Wood believed that to be a real artist, he had to live in Paris. But once he got there, he realized that to be a great painter he needed to return to the people and places—and even animals—that he knew and loved the best.
Inspired by the life of artist Grant Wood, this is the sensitively imagined story of the great American painter and a c …
Storm's Refuge
The only thing bigger than the storm in Michelle's heart is the blizzard raging across the Alberta prairie outside her window. Finding an injured stray dog is the last thing she needs. Add to the mix the handsome new vet who is taking over her beloved Doc’s practice and peace of mind is not in the picture. Cale Benjamin is too nice to be for real …
Breathing Lessons
A bold and explicit debut novel by one of the most visceral new voices in gay fiction. Breathing Lessons is the story of Henry Moss, a homosexual everyman whose life knows none of the limitations or abuses his predecessors experienced. When a teenaged Henry came out to his mother, she worried only that he’d be lonely. At the time, he thought her …
Saving Farmland
When Nathalie Chambers and her husband, David, first took over Madrona Farm, 27 acres on southern Vancouver Island with a deep history, they never thought their small-scale agricultural business would blossom into an international political act. As pressures from heirs, land developers and industrial farmers grew alongside their rows of organically …
Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You
Through the braided narratives of three spirited characters, this novel bears witness to the infamous “American” crime that metastasized uber-civilized Montreal. Everyone wants a Marin at her party. Bohemian and beautiful, this engineering student is as passionate about constructing sets for theater and opera as she is about Trey, the one man s …
Beethoven's Tenth
Piano tuner Frank Ryan is paid in kind by an aging music teacher with an old manuscript that turns out to be Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony. Launched into a world of intrigue and violence, Ryan, an unlikely sleuth, realizes he must use his wits to conquer his enemies and solve the mystery of the manuscript. In the process Ryan discovers whom he can t …
Fifteen Dogs
An utterly convincing and moving look at the beauty and perils of consciousness.
WINNER OF CANADA READS 2017
WINNER OF THE 2015 GILLER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE 2015 ROGERS WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE 2015 TORONTO BOOK AWARDS
— I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence.
—I'll wager a year's servitude, …
Shot in the Dark
Eighth-grader Micah is psyched to have made the BC junior goalball team -- even though he gets the news while dealing with a flare-up of his degenerative eye condition. What he's not happy about is his parents' decision to get him a guide dog, and the possibility of losing his independence.
When Liam, a new, first-rate player, joins the goalball tea …
Fight Back
Tyler Josten has never caught a break. Abandoned by his mother, physically and emotionally abused by his father, he grows up with a wild temper, fighting anyone he sees as a bully -- including the police. When he gets into trouble with the law, his grandmother gives up on him, and he is placed in foster care to wait for his court date.
The Conways w …
Blue Mountain
When young Tuk is born on the mountain, life is simple for a young bighorn. Run, jump and play with his bandmates, eat and grow strong. But soon it will be up to Tuk to lead the herd to a new mountain he has seen far to the west. It will be a long journey filled with dangers. Wolf, bear, wolverine, puma — and man.
The responsibility to lead the he …
Henry Hudson
From the era of wooden sailing ships and Europe’s golden age of exploration, the story of famed British navigator Henry Hudson tells a classic tale of courage, ambition, and treachery on the high seas. As the leader of four Arctic voyages in 1607, 1608, 1609, and 1610, Hudson searched in vain for a navigable route through the polar ice that would …
Old Lives
Set in the wild country north of Lillooet and west of the great Fraser River, Old Lives: In the Chilcotin Backcountry paints the rugged landscape and equally rugged lives of the Chilcotin’s enigmatic old-timers: Aboriginal and settler, male and female, deceased and alive. It takes vigilance, persistence, courage and humour to live where survival …
A Fit Month for Dying
A Fit Month for Dying is the third book in M.T. Dohaney's highly praised trilogy about the women of Newfoundland's outports. Fans of The Corrigan Women and To Scatter Stones will embrace this book, while those reading the author for the first time will discover her characteristic bittersweet humour. Tess Corrigan seems to be living the good life. S …
Search and Rescue
When a young woman goes missing on a nature trail, small-town journalist Claire Abbott is first on the scene, as usual. The clues to the woman’s whereabouts are misleading, but Claire has a sixth sense—what the fire chief calls a "radar for crime." Trusting her intuition, Claire insists that the search and rescue team look elsewhere for clues t …
Out Proud
Produced in partnership with Egale Canada Human Rights Trust, Out Proud: Stories of Pride, Courage, and Social Justice is the second in a series of essay anthologies designed to give attention to issues that are sometimes ignored in the mainstream media—and a voice to those most closely affected by them. Expertly edited by sociologist Dr. Douglas …
Lucky Dog
Lucky Dog is a hilarious and heartwarming memoir by a renowned veterinary oncologist who tells us what we can learn about health care and ourselves from our most beloved pets.
What happens when a veterinary surgical oncologist (laymen’s term: cancer surgery doctor) thinks she has cancer herself? Enter Sarah Boston: a vet who suspects a suspicious …
Deathbed Dimes
Deathbed Dimes exposes the reality that if you can outlive your relatives, friends, and sometimes even strangers, your odds of hitting the inheritance jackpot are better than playing the lottery.
Joely Zeller is a beautiful and ambitious 32-year-old attorney who is the only daughter of a Hollywood film royal. She’s determined to build a successful …
White Oneida, The
In her fourth historical novel dealing with British North America and the American Revolution, Jean Rae Baxter focuses on Broken Trail, a young boy who was born white but captured and adopted by the Oneida people. The great Mohawk leader Thayendanegea - known to Euro-Canadians as Joseph Brant - has chosen Broken Trail to assist him in the daunting …
The Mystery of the Cyber Bully
How do you find a bully who lurks on the Internet and lashes out at helpless victims? Intrepid kid detectives Marty, Remi, and Trina must answer that question if they’re to stop a cyber bully targeting their classmates.
In their toughest case yet, the sleuths must follow the electronic trail to their enemy, but the cyber bully outsmarts them at ev …
The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher
When Trina’s bicycle is stolen, Marty and Remi gear up to solve the case. Once they start their investigation they are both stunned that the evidence leads them to the doorstep of their new elementary school teacher. Mr E proves to be quite resourceful as an opponent, and the new girl at school, Ida, seemingly foils their attempts to catch the sc …
Pastoral
André Alexis brings a modern sensibility and a new liveliness to an age-old genre, the pastoral.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS' TRUST OF CANADA FICTION PRIZE
ONE OF THE GLOBE AND MAIL'S GLOBE 100: BEST BOOKS OF 2014
There were plans for an official welcome. It was to take place the following Sunday. But those who came to the rectory on Father Pennant's …
Not My Girl
Two years ago, Margaret left her Arctic home for the outsiders' school. Now she has returned and can barely contain her excitement as she rushes towards her waiting family -- but her mother stands still as a stone. This strange, skinny child, with her hair cropped short, can't be her daughter. "Not my girl!" she says angrily.
Margaret's years at sch …
Blue Gold
Coltan, or “blue gold,” is a rare mineral used in making cell phones and computers. Across continents, the lives of three teen girls are affected by the “blue gold” trade.
Sylvie’s family had to lee the Democratic Republic of the Congo after her father was killed by a rogue militia gang in the conlict for control of coltan. The refugee cam …
Demon Gate
When young Ehrich Weisz — the future illusionist, Harry Houdini — follows his brother, Dash, through a strange portal, he is thrust into an alternate New York where the immigrants aren't just different ethnicities but different species. He finds work in this strange steampunk world as a Demon Hunter, tracking down dangerous otherworldly visitor …
The Hidden Agenda of Sigrid Sugden
Sigrid Sugden is a Shrike, a member of one of the toughest group of girls in school. They are experts at blackmail, extortion and bullying their terrorized classmates. But one day, the Shrikes go too far. Sigrid realizes that their favourite victim, Prinny Murphy, is in real danger. She makes a decision that will save Prinny from danger but will tu …
Mr. and Mrs. Bunny — eep at fromstring 7104066 title A
Shortlisted for the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award and selected as an OLA Best Bet for 2012
Madeline's parents have gone missing. Her only clues? A note tacked on the fridge from someone called The Enemy, a file card covered in a squiggly secret code, and dozens of red eyes staring out the blackened windows of a car she saw speeding down her d …
The Night Spies
It is the middle of World War II, and Gabi and her mother have been lucky so far, eluding the grasp of Nazi soldiers who are sending Jewish people away to unknown fates. But she, her mother and her young cousin, Max, realize that they will never be safe in their town. With the help of a trusted friend, a kind-hearted priest and a poor yet brave far …
Jason’s Why
Jason's mom says he is a problem, and puts him in a group home. Now Jason has to live with boys and grown-ups he doesn't know. Jason thinks, Now I'm in a house that isn't my house. I watch their hands and feet. When hands and feet move fast, you're going to get hit. There's a big bubble of mad inside Jason. It makes him yell and throw things. Jason …
PostApoc
Sole survivor of a suicide pact, Ang has fallen into an underground music scene obsessed with the idea of the end of the world. But when the end finally does come, Ang and her friends don’t find the liberation they expected. Instead, those still alive are starving, strung out and struggling to survive in a world that no longer makes sense. As Ang …
Striker
Thirteen-year-old Cody is aching to get back onto the pitch. Last year he had a tumor removed from his leg. Though it's a struggle, Cody tries out for the Lions and makes the team as a "super sub" -- one of eleven players who jokingly named themselves that because they're never allowed to play. Secretly Cody is relieved, since he hasn't told anyone …
Portrait of Julia
In 1920 Julia Robertson is a young, beautiful war widow, aware of the radical new ideas bursting into the settled thinking of post-Victorian Canada. That new thinking, about the human unconscious through Freud and Jung, about sexual frankness, about women as well as skepticism about religion, shaped the emerging 20th century world and infused moder …
Blue Future
Selected for The Globe 100 Books in 2013.
The final book in Maude Barlow’s Blue trilogy, Blue Future is a powerful, penetrating, and timely look at the global water crisis — and what we can do to prevent it.
The global water crisis has dramatically deepened. The stage is being set for drought on an unprecedented scale, mass starvation, and the mi …
Projection
2013 Governor General’s Literary Award — Shortlisted, Non-Fiction
2013 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust — Shortlisted, Non-Fiction
Projection is the story of this mother-daughter meeting in Brazil, of how two strangers, connected by little more than blood, spent ten days together trying to build a relationship.
In 1977, Priscila Uppal’s fathe …
Until Today
Kat is alone with a secret she doesn’t want to keep, but can’t risk telling. A victim of longtime sexual abuse at the hands of her family’s trusted friend, Kat is torn between trying to protect herself and safeguarding her little sister, whom she fears might be next. With no one to turn to, Kat keeps a secret journal where she writes the trut …
Baygirl
Growing up in a picturesque Newfoundland fishing village should be idyllic for sixteen-year-old Kit Ryan, but living with an alcoholic father makes Kit's day-to-day life unpredictable and almost intolerable.
When the 1992 cod moratorium forces her father out of a job, the tension between Kit and her father grows. Forced to leave their rural communit …
A Bird's Eye
Shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and selected as an Amazon.ca Best Book.
With all the wonder of a small-scale The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay comes this moving and unforgettable novel about childhood, love, and magic.
Growing up in a Jewish neighbourhood in the 1930s, young Benjamin Kleeman falls in love, first wit …