Literary

A journalist, teacher and writer, T.F. Rigelhof plumbs his undeniably deep knowledge of the CanLit canon to come up with his selections of “the Good, the Better and the Best Canadian Novels Since 1984,” as goes this book’s subtitle. (He covers 25 years of the Canadian novel, up to 2009.) Early on, Rigelhof defines these […]

From Potter, co-author of The Rebel Sell, comes an attempt to explain our modern existential search for meaning in a hollow world. As I read Potter’s summaries of Hume and Thales I pictured my first-year philosophy prof—mad eyebrows dancing a jig on his forehead, who knows what in his Thermos—skimming the history of philosophy in […]

As the story goes, publishers roundly tossed out Yann Martel’s idea for a “flip book,” a volume that would contain a fictional story and accompanying essay. The Life of Pi author went on to use the experience of that rejection and reversibility (as a thematic motif if not physical format) in his novel from earlier […]

Coming off a bit like the younger, slightly rebellious, and actually funny, sister of Carrie from Sex and the City, Crosley’s collection of humorous essays centre around being young in general, and being young in New York. The New York humour is a bit alien: I don’t really get jokes about taxi service, or bargain […]

It doesn’t matter how many kerplows, superpowers or evil villains you stuff into a graphic novel—if it doesn’t have a sense of humanity and a strong heart, who cares? Former Haligonian O’Malley’s series, which is going to balloon to phenomenon status with the launch of the film on August 13, may contain the requisite hipster […]

Toronto’s Don River Valley figures prominently in Fauna, the highly anticipated new novel from Alissa York. A sanctuary for misfits of both animal and humankind the Don wilderness is home to an auto wrecker’s yard that doubles as a rehabilitation centre for broken spirits and broken wings. But the delicate balance of life and death […]

Quebec artist Philippe Girard chronicles his first visit to Russia, for the St. Petersburg comic festival Boomfest, in this comic travelogue. Girard checks out Russian cuisine, living arrangements in formerly communal apartments, vodka, the Cyrillic alphabet and St. Petersburg’s elegant subway. On his journey he pays attention to coincidences and oddities: old ladies speaking in […]

Poet, author and artist Sonja Ahlers’ book of collage and poetry will appeal to those who have a stack of Busts beside their futons and Jezebel.com high on their bookmarks. Using an incredible array of found images, mostly of iconic female celebrities and figures like Holly Hobby, Jeri Blank (Amy Sedaris) and the girls from […]

Taddle Creek magazine is hitting the road, and Halifax is its first stop. An arts magazine normally focused on Toronto, Taddle Creek just published its first Out-of-Towner issue and is marking the occasion with its first tour. “We run one Out-of-Towner piece in each issue by or about someone outside of Toronto,” says Conan Tobias […]

Danila Botha’s debut collection of short stories makes the personal political. With clear diction, Botha’s prose packs a punch. There’s no skirting the issues, masquerading behind metaphor or dancing between the lines. The Johannesburg-born, Halifax-based author sets many of her stories in Toronto and South Africa; she writes fearlessly about rape (“My So-Called Date”), drugs […]

Embedded in each of these stories, though not bluntly stated or clumsily constructed, is an everyday moral dilemma to be considered. In the opening story, “Throwing Cotton,” questions on the role of rivalry in friendship (is there any such thing as friendly rivalry?), especially among men, arise. Later, in “Prognosis,” the author queries when and […]

Saturn Apartments is a strange mix of hard sci-fi, childlike art and sentimentality. Mitsu is a window washer on a space station orbiting an abandoned earth. Life on the station is highly stratified: the rich get windows and natural sunlight while the poor live within the station’s core. This volume sets up some interesting dichotomies […]