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THE SINGING FOREST, THE MUSIC GAME, POGUEMAHONE, CHEMICAL VALLEY, ROMANTIC, THE DEBT: Latest Reviews!

IN THE NEWS

THE SINGING FOREST

Judith McCormack, author of The Singing Forest, was interviewed for The Globe and Mail! The article was published online on December 30, 2021. You can read the full article here.

Marsha Lederman writes,

“These separate but not unrelated elements of the story come together in ways that may seem obvious in this summary, but are masterfully explored and interwoven in the novel. They also allow for levity—The Singing Forest is not an endless grind of horrors. But it is a serious examination, including one key question at its core: What drives people to commit such horrible crimes?”

Get your copy of The Singing Forest here!

THE MUSIC GAME

The Music Game (February 8, 2022) by Stéfanie Clermont was mentioned on CBC Ontario Morning with Wei Chan! The episode aired on January 5, 2022. You can listen to the segment here (Jan 5 part 2, at approx 42:35).

Pre-order your copy of The Music Game here!

POGUEMAHONE

Poguemahone by Patrick McCabe (May 3, 2022) has been listed by The Guardian as ‘Fiction to look out for in 2022.’ The list was published online on December 30, 2021. You can read the full article here.

Alex Preston writes,

“If you’re looking for this century’s Ulysses, look no further than Patrick McCabe’s Poguemahone, a stunningly lyrical novel in free verse that takes place in Margate and in the mind and memories of Dan and Una Fogarty. It may look like a chore at more than 600 pages, but it’s a blast.”

Pre-order your copy of Poguemahone here!

CHEMICAL VALLEY

Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021) by David Huebert was included on the Mirachimi Reader‘s list of ‘Best Fiction Titles of 2021’! The list was posted on December 19, 2021. Check out the full list here.

Ian Colford wrote,

“In Chemical Valley, as in his previous volume of stories, Peninsula Sinking, David Huebert’s knack for creating engaging characters and finding interesting things for them to say, do and think is on abundant, boisterous display.”

David Huebert was also interviewed on CBC What on Earth! The episode on climate fiction aired on December 26, 2021. You can listen to it here (beginning at 19:00).

Host Laura Lynch says,

“David Huebert’s short stories explore environmental dread and creeping climate chaos, but also the power of love and community in a damaged world.”

Pick up your copy of Chemical Valley here!

ROMANTIC & THE DEBT

Romantic (October 12, 2021) by Mark Callanan and The Debt (April 6, 2021) by Andreae Callanan were both included by Joan Sullivan on SaltWire‘s list of ‘Top 10 Books of 2021’! The list was posted on January 1, 2022. You can check out the full list here.

Get your copy of Romantic here!

Get your copy of The Debt here!

 

A GHOST IN THE THROAT, STRANGERS, DEBT, VILLA NEGATIVA, ON TIME AND WATER, SEA LOVES ME, DRIVEN: Latest News!

We’ve gotten some fantastic coverage on a number of our titles here at Biblioasis in the last couple of weeks. Take a look at these reviews!

IN THE NEWS

Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat was highlighted in the New York Review of Books, and in a starred review by Foreword Reviews! You can read the New York Review of Books article here, and the Foreword Reviews article here.

New York Review of Books reviewer Ange Mlinko writes:

“Ní Ghríofa is a poet through and through: in this prose work she writes lyrical sentences that make the physical world come alive … It was around Ní Chonaill’s time that a new poetic form was invented: the aisling, a dream vision of Ireland revealing itself to the poet as a beautiful woman in need of saving. Ní Ghríofa certainly gives us a new, feminist vision of a woman saving another woman, righting a historical imbalance that persists in women’s continued sacrifices.”

Michelle Anne Schingler writes in Foreword Reviews:

“History mutes women; it also depends on them. This paradox is at the heart of a A Ghost in the Throat, an extraordinary literary memoir that finds life in buried spaces … Feminist and feminine, A Ghost in the Throat gives defiant voice to hushed womanhood, in all of its pain and glory. Her images incandescent and brutal, Ní Ghríofa writes about the omens represented by starlings and about unearthed fragments of teacups, but also about caesarean scars, bleeding hangnails, and the consuming fire of her husband’s touch … A Ghost in the Throat is an achingly gorgeous literary exploration that establishes a sisterhood across generations.”

Visit their websites for the full reviews!

Order your copy from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore.

 

Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time and Water, and Mia Couto’s Sea Loves Me were both featured in reviews by the Winnipeg Free Press! The piece on Magnason can be read here, and the one on Couto can be read here.

Of On Time and Water, reviewer Joseph Hnatiuk had this to say:

“Compelling … This clarion call to action on the climate issue, coming from award-winning Icelandic poet and novelist Andri Snær Magnason, should be required reading for deniers of the greatest crisis humans have ever faced … A memoir and polemic featuring mythological stories, Icelandic folklore, cultural histories and science-driven extrapolations which effectively combine to send a strong message about the planetary damage humans are causing.”

While Rory Runnells wrote about Sea Loves Me:

“Extraordinary … Begin anywhere, with any story, and you as reader are safe within Couto’s world. The imagination is without limit, the poetic force is exhilarating and often disturbing, while the surprise of some is breathtaking … Couto is as much a master of the pointed anecdote as the longer tale.”

Check out the Winnipeg Free Press website for the full reviews.

Purchase your copy of On Time and Water from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

Order Sea Loves Me today from Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

 

Strangers by Rob Taylor, Villa Negativa by Sharon McCartney, and The Debt by Andreae Callanan were all featured on CBC’s 55 Canadian poetry collections to check out in spring 2021 list! For a look at our poetry collections and more, check out the full list here.

Order your copy of Strangers at Biblioasis

Order your copy of Villa Negativa at Biblioasis

Order your copy of The Debt at Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

 

And just last week, Marcello Di Cintio’s Driven was given a glowing shout-out on twitter by none other than Margaret Atwood!

Atwood wrote:

“An astonishing book about folks from all over, many of whom have been through total hell but have somehow made their way out … You never know who’s driving you. Each person contains multitudes.”

Purchase your copy of Driven at Biblioasis, or your local bookstore!

THE DEBT Virtual Launch Video

Over the weekend we celebrated the launch of Andreae Callanan’s poetry collection, The Debt! Andreae Callanan was joined in conversation by Elaine Feeney, and the event was emceed wonderfully by Mark Callanan. The launch finished off with an audience Q&A, and a successful book giveaway. The event was also co-hosted by Running the Goat Books in Tors Cove, NL.

And if you couldn’t make it, don’t worry! You can still watch here:

ABOUT THE DEBT

Set against the backdrop of a post-moratorium St. John’s, Newfoundland, The Debt explores tensions between tradition and innovation, and between past and present in a province unmoored by loss and grief. The Debt is about development and change, idleness and activism, ecological stewardship, feminism, motherhood, the personal and the political. It is also about resistance—against the encroaching forces of greed and capitalism, even against the accumulated notions of the self. The poems are an argument for community and connection in an age increasingly associated with isolation of the individual. The Debt explores the dues we all owe: to nature, to those who came before us, and to one another.

ABOUT ANDREAE CALLANAN

Andreae Callanan’s poetry, essays, and reviews have been read in The Walrus, Canadian Notes and Queries, Canadian Verse 2, Riddle Fence, CBC.ca, and The Newfoundland Quarterly. She is a recent recipient of the Cox & Palmer SPARKS Creative Writing Award at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and she holds a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship for her doctoral work in English literature. Her chapbook, Crown, was published by Anstruther Press in 2019. Andreae lives in St. John’s with her husband and their four children.

 

Pre-order your copy from Running the Goat Bookstore

Learn more about The Debt, or pre-order your copy, from Biblioasis