A Great List for Spring
The eh List Author Series is our premier showcase for new Canadian books; this season, The eh List features authors we know and love, authors who are emerging from the pack, and a few surprises.
We love mysteries. Canadians not only read them passionately, we create them at quite a pace. This season we feature Gail Bowen, with her latest Joanne Kilbourn puzzle. Bowen, a fine writer from western Canada, makes her first appearance on the list with a tale of confused identities and forgotten histories. Giles Blunt is back with his newest Inspector Cardinal procedural, another great ramble through Algonquin Bay. And Peter Robinson, prolific and much lauded author of the DCI Banks television series, makes his first appearance on The eh List (Interviewed by José Latour) with Bad Boy, his most recent Inspector Banks novel. With all these crime novels on the list, we thought it might be prudent to ask former Toronto mayor and social critic John Sewell to come and talk about his new book which takes a hard look at police and policing in Canada.
Some first novels made the list this season: David Bezmozgis, whose short story collection Natasha and Other Storie rocked the Can Lit world, will be at the Appel Salon with his greatly anticipated The Free World; Sylvia Tyson, best known as a powerful singer and songwriter, arrives on the fiction scene with a beautifully drawn family saga spanning many generations of musicians and thieves. She will be interviewed by columnist Cynthia MacDonald. Former Lieutenant Governor James Bartleman gives us a hard edged story about ‘the sixties scoop’, and the consequences for First Nations in northern Ontario. Danish-Canadian Anne Fortier, whose Juliet gives new life to the old story, will read from this book-club favourite and answer questions about its origin and future. This year’s Giller prize went to a first novelist, Johanna Skibsrud, for her powerful, and very readable literary work, The Sentimentalists. Johanna will make a special Saturday appearance at North York Central Library.
Non-fiction titles on the list include The Night Shift, Dr. Brian Goldman’s collection of tales from the emergency room; Nazneen Sheik gives us a memoir of love and longing in Morocco; and Michael Winter has penned a fictionalized account of a murder and subsequent trial in his provocative book, The Death of Donna Whalen.
Haitian Canadian francophone Dany Laferriére, author of the classic How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired is coming to Toronto for two appearances: one in French, with his newest title, L’enigme du retour and one in English, with his recently translated post modern novel I Am A Japanese Writer. Laferriére was reluctant to make an appearance in English, and so we brought his long-time translator, David Homel, who will appear with Dany, and will also appear with his own newest novel, Midway.
Alyssa York is back with a beautifully drawn portrait of life in the Don Valley; Sheila Heti comes to TRL with her new, philosophically driven novel How Should A Person Be?; Russell Smith goes Girl Crazy in his newest novel examining modern life; and master storyteller Antanas Silieka joins the list with an historical thriller, Underground, and will also interview André Alexis about Beauty and Sadness his new collection of stories and essays at The Reference Library.
So come out and meet the author of your favourite book of the season! Bring your book for an autograph, bring your questions for the author, and bring a friend.
One thought on “A Great List for Spring”
I’m crying because I just had a horrible afternoon with my two little kids who needed more more MORE than I could give and I’m way less than proud of how I paren’ted when things got really tough…when my husband walked in I passed the baton and I’m hiding in the extra bedroom with my dinner and your blog…and that was just the thing that I needed to read right now. Thank you!pilipalagaga 0302