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Media Hits: BURN MAN, THE FUTURE, YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2024), according to CBC Books is the #1 bestselling Canadian fiction title in Canada this week! You can view the full list here.

The Future was featured in the Windsor Star. The article was published on January 13, 2024, and you can read the full profile here.

Trevor Wilhelm writes:

“Dystopian novel The Future, published by Windsor’s Bibliosias, is in the running for a national competition to determine the one book to rule them all.”

Catherine Leroux, author of The Future, has been interviewed on CBC: Let’s Go. The interview aired on January 15, 2024. Listen to the full interview here.

Grab your copy of The Future here!

BURN MAN

Burn Man by Mark Anthony Jarman (Nov 21, 2023) received an outstanding review in the New York Times! The review was published online on January 13, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Lincoln Michel writes:

“Anyone who enjoys poetry in prose, who feels enlivened by language and struck by sentences, will find much to admire in Burn Man. Jarman’s stories are full of violence, tragedy and mistakes. Yet there’s plenty of humor and heart too. […] Burn Man left me seeing a bit more beauty in our hurting-heart world.”

Burn Man was featured again in the New York Times by Greg Cowles as part of their Editor’s Choice column: “9 New Books We Recommend This Week.” The article was published online on January 25, 2024, and can be read here.

Cowles says, of Burn Man:

“The Canadian author Jarman may not be a familiar name in the United States just yet, but this anthology aims to fix that.”

Burn Man was reviewed by Andrew Hood on The Bookshelf’s website. The review was published online on January 19, 2024, and can be read here.

Hood writes:

“If I would compare Jarman to anyone other than himself, it would be to Tom Waits. Post-Kathleen Brennan Tom Waits. Yes, these are stories in the generic sense, just as a Tom Waits song is, technically, a song, but they are made of different things. For Waits, anything is percussive if you bang on it hard enough in the right place, and Jarman bashes language in the same way. The instrumentation in a Jarman story may sometimes sound conventional, but once isolated, sounds like nothing other than what it is. […] Reading Jarman is often, and I mean this in the best way possible, like drinking from a fire hose.”

Burn Man has also been excerpted in Lit Hub. The excerpt was published online on January 17, 2024—take a look here.

Get Burn Man here!

YOUR ABSENCE IS DARKNESS

Your Absence Is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton (March 5, 2024)  is an Indie Next Pick for March and has also received an outstanding starred review in Publishers Weekly. The review was published online on January 14, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Publishers Weekly writes:

“What makes this so irresistible is the narrator’s constant optimism as he probes profound questions from within the murk of his consciousness (“Give me darkness, and then I’ll know where the light is”). Stefánsson is poised to make his mark on the world stage.”

Order your copy of Your Absence is Darkness here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simić was featured on Kirkus Reviews as one of “20 Titles You Can Read in a Week.” The article was published online on January 24, 2024. Check out the full list here.

Order your copy of Love Novel here!

BEST CANADIAN POETRY 2024 & BEST CANADIAN ESSAYS 2024

Best Canadian Essays 2024 and Best Canadian Poetry 2024 (Nov 14, 2023) have been reviewed in The Miramichi Reader. The article was published online on January 23, 2024. You can read the full review here.

Christina Barber writes of the anthologies:

“A testament to the importance of literature in Canada … it is a powerful body that celebrates the creative and literary spirit of Canadians from coast to coast to coast.”

Best Canadian Essays 2024 was also reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press. The article was published online on January 13, 2024, and you can read the full review here.

Susan Huebert writes:

“Each of the authors in Best Canadian Essays 2024 offers a particular style and perspective, but the essays work together to provide a picture of some of the issues Canadians have been facing. Many readers are likely to find something to interest them in this short collection of essays.”

Grab your copy of Essays here and Poetry here!

Check out all three Best Canadian anthologies here!

Media Hits: HOW TO BUILD A BOAT, ALL THE YEARS COMBINE, SLEEP IS NOW A FOREIGN COUNTRY, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

HOW TO BUILD A BOAT

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney (Nov 7, 2023) has been reviewed by Sophie Ward in the New York Times! The review was published online on November 1, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Ward writes:

“Atmospheric … Feeney’s prose is both careful and relaxed—detailed in its description of place and character and of the effortful human urge to find order in the natural world; casual in its approach to storytelling.”

How to Build a Boat has also been reviewed in the Hindustan Times. The review was published online on October 31, 2023. You can read the full review here.

The Hindustan Times writes:

“How to Build a Boat conjures images of rural Ireland and the Irish sea. It explores how motherhood shapes people in many ways … Fractured lives … come together beautifully in this novel that explores humanity, love, and grief.”

Get How to Build a Boat here!

SLEEP IS NOW A FOREIGN COUNTRY

Sleep is Now a Foreign Country by Mike Barnes (Nov 14, 2023) was reviewed in Quill & Quire. The review was published online on November 2, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Micheline Maylor writes:

“At times memoir, at times dissociative fable, at times personal essay … the writing maintains breath-close nearness to the perceptions of the narrator … This close-up experience of Barnes’s psychosis is akin to being in a diving bell with the storyteller, extremely intimate and viscerally suffocating … culminat(ing) in a feeling of waking from a vivid dream not quite remembered.”

Get Sleep is Now a Foreign Country here!

ALL THE YEARS COMBINE

All the Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows by Ray Robertson (Nov 7, 2023), was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press. The review was published online on October 30, 2023. You can read the full article here.

Douglas Johnston writes:

“It’s hard to convey the magic of the Dead’s music in words … Robertson … succeeds.”

Ray Robertson was interviewed on Border City Rock Talk. The interview was posted online on October 31, 2023. Listen to the full interview here.

All the Years Combine was also reviewed in Louder Than War. The review was  published online on November 1, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Craig Campbell writes:

“This collection celebrating fifty concerts by the Grateful Dead shows them to be tougher and more complex than you might think … meticulous readings of the bands concerts (alongside track listings) are impressively extensive but crucially they also build a surprising picture too.”

Get All the Years Combine here!

SETH’S CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES: THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR

The Captain of the Polestar by Arthur Conan Doyle, illust. by Seth (Oct 31, 2023) was featured on the Christmas Past Podcast! Host Brian Earl did a reading of the story, from our 2023 Christmas Ghost Stories series, in an episode posted on October 31, 2023. You can listen to the episode here.

Get The Captain of the Polestar here!

Get all three 2023 Christmas Ghost Stories here!

ON WRITING AND FAILURE

On Writing and Failure by Stephen Marche (Feb 14, 2023) was reviewed in The New Statesman. The review was published online on November 2, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Barney Horner writes:

“Marche’s purpose is not to discourage young tyros from taking up the pen but to inform them—via repeated commands of “no whining”—that writing is not the path to success, riches or even, often, respect; writers write in spite of failure.”

Get On Writing and Failure here!

Check out the rest of the Field Notes series here!

ALL THINGS MOVE

Jeannie Marshall, author of All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel (Apr 4, 2023), was interviewed on Art Curious Podcast. The episode was published online on October 30, 2023. You can listen to the episode here.

Get All Things Move here!

Media Hits: THE FUTURE, LOVE NOVEL, STANDING HEAVY, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

THE FUTURE

Catherine Leroux, author of The Future, trans. by Susan Ouriou (Sep 5, 2023), has been interviewed on CBC’s The Next Chapter. The interview aired on October 21, 2023. You can listen to the full interview here.

The Future has been reviewed in the Montreal Review of Books. The review was published online on October 11, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Bronwyn Averett writes:

“Leroux brings believability, poetry, and hopefulness to the dystopian narrative of Fort Détroit by steering clear of the many pitfalls of end-times novel … This permits the novel to imagine infinite small beginnings within the ending, and to show how destruction is balanced by the ever-present promise of creation.”

The Future was also reviewed in The Miramichi Reader. The review was published online on October 10, 2023, and can be read here.

Lisa Timpf writes:

“Unlike some dystopian books, The Future is suffused with a sense of optimism … Though their neighbourhood is decaying and the economy is crumbling, the characters reach beyond the every-person-for-themselves trope by celebrating community, the power of cooperation, and hope.”

Get The Future here!

ALL THE YEARS COMBINE

Ray Robertson, author of All The Years Combine: The Grateful Dead in Fifty Shows (Nov 7, 2023), was featured in 519 Magazine. The feature was published online on October 26, 2023. You can read the full article here.

Dan Savoie writes:

“If life were a Grateful Dead concert, Chatham author Ray Robertson would be it’s philosopher-archivist.”

Ray Robertson was interviewed for the Chatham Daily News. The story was published online on October 17, 2023 and in print October 18, 2023.  Check out the full interview here.

Get All the Years Combine here!

LOVE NOVEL

Love Novel by Ivana Sajko, translated by Mima Simic (Feb 14, 2024) was reviewed in Publishers Weekly. The review was published online on October 25, 2023. You can read the full review here.

The review reads:

“A sharp and claustrophobic portrait of a fraying marriage … Sajko never takes her foot off the gas in this potent and incendiary outing.”

Preorder Love Novel here!

OFF THE RECORD

Off the Record by John Metcalf (Nov 14, 2023) was excerpted in Quill & Quire. Online on October 25, 2023. You can read the full excerpt here.

Off the Record was reviewed in Publishers Weekly, online on October 6, 2023. You can read the full review here.

The review reads:

“The authors’ reflections illustrate the complex interplay between craft and intuition that goes into writing fiction … and provide revealing case studies of how stories move from inspiration to published product. Aspiring writers will be enlightened.”

Order Off the Record here!

STANDING HEAVY

Standing Heavy by GauZ’, trans. by Frank Wynne (Oct 3, 2023) was reviewed in Words Without Borders. The review was published online on October 25, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Tobias Carroll writes:

“Tightly written and tautly structured, Standing Heavy has a considerable heft to it … There have been countless novels written about class and immigration over the years, but what Gauz’ has done here is truly singular.”

Standing Heavy by GauZ’ was reviewed in the New York Times, and was published online on October 6, 2023. You can read the full review here.

The review reads:

“This shrewd, episodic novel stars the security guards of Paris. Specifically: Ferdinand, Ossiri and Kassoum, undocumented Ivoirian immigrants whose watchful eyes examine Parisian turmoil over two generations. ‘Here, everything is on sale, even self-esteem,’ Ossiri notes, before he ejects shoppers at closing.”

Get Standing Heavy here!

COCKTAIL

Cocktail by Lisa Alward (Sep 12 2023), was featured on CBC Books as one of “18 books by past CBC Short Story Prize winners and finalists from 2023.” The article was published online on October 26, 2023. You can read the full article here.

Lisa Alward was interviewed on CBC Fredericton by Jeannie Armstrong. The interview was published online on October 23, 2023 and can be listened to here.

Cocktail was also reviewed on Pickle Me This blog on October 16, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Get Cocktail here!

1934

1934: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars’ Barrier-Breaking Year by Heidi LM Jacobs (June 6, 2023) was reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada. The review was published online on October 16, 2023, and will appear in the November 2023 print issue. You can read the full review here.

Michael Taube calls it:

“An inspiring story of determination and triumph, grounded in the belief that sport is for everyone.”

Get 1934 here!

THE FULL-MOON WHALING CHRONICLES

The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles by Jason Guriel (August 1, 2023) has been excerpted in the Washington Post’s Book World newsletter. The excerpt was published online on October 13, 2023. Read the full excerpt here.

In the newsletter, Ron Charles writes:

“Jason Guriel is a Canadian poet of gobsmacking originality. Three years ago, he published Forgotten Work, a futuristic novel about fans searching for an early 21st-century rock band. […] Guriel’s new verse novel is, if anything, even more bizarre and delightful.”

Get The Full-Moon Whaling Chronicles here!

 

Media Hits: DREAMING HOME, WORLD AT MY BACK, ART OF LIBROMANCY, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

DREAMING HOME

Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs (June 6, 2023) has been reviewed in the New York Times. The article was published online on July 7, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Kia Corthron writes,

“Eminently accomplished, [and] often deliciously droll … The novel asks provocative questions: At what age are we wholly accountable for our actions? To what degree do we hold a traumatized person responsible for perpetuating harm?”

Dreaming Home was also reviewed in Quill and Quire on June 27, 2023 and in Prairie Fire on June 26, 2023.

In Quill and Quire, Shawn Syms writes,

“In elegant, emotionally resonant prose, Childs creates a nuanced and sensitive portrait of a life shaped by loss, abandonment, and generational trauma … Thematically sophisticated, Dreaming Home also explores persistent issues in the gay male community such as sexual racism and the disparagement of older men.”

In Prairie Fire, Will Fawley writes,

“Though weighty, the stories or chapters in Dreaming Home are easy to devour because they feel so real and personal … The language is sparse, yet beautifully written, illuminating brief moments and observations that root you to the lives and experiences of these characters, making them vivid and real.”

Dreaming Home was featured in The Southern Review of Books as one of “Books to Celebrate in June 2023”. The list was published online on June 29, 2023. You can read the full list here.

Order Dreaming Home here!

THE WORLD AT MY BACK

The World at My Back by Thomas Melle, trans. by Luise von Flotow, (May 2, 2023) has been featured in the New York Times as one of “9 New Books We Recommend This Week.” The article was published online on May 31, 2023.

You can read the full article here.

Order The World at My Back here!

THE ART OF LIBROMANCY

The Art of Libromancy by Josh Cook (August 22, 2023) has been featured in Lit Hub as one of their “Most Anticipated Books of 2023.” The article was published online on July 5, 2023.

You can read the full article here.

Order The Art of Libromancy here!

THE COUNTRY OF TOO

The Country of Toó by Rodrigo Rey Rosa, translated by Stephen Henighan, (July 11, 2023) has been featured in the Brooklyn Rail, including an interview with the author by Tobias Carroll. The article was published online on July 5, 2023. You can read the full piece here.

Carroll writes,

“The Country of Toó is … about a lot of things, including political corruption and reform; a young man’s surreal recovery from a traumatic injury; and the moral crisis faced by a man known only as the Cobra, who has begun to feel the strain of years of working as a hired gun. Tonally, the work shifts from realistic to dreamlike and back again; the result is a complex reckoning with histories both personal and national.”

Order The Country of Toó here!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING

Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton (April 18, 2023) was featured in the New Yorker as part one of their “Best Books We Read This Week,” which is part of their Best Books of 2023. The list was updated on June 22, 2023.

You can read the full list here.

Order Instructions for the Drowning here!

HOW TO BUILD A BOAT

How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney (November 7, 2023) has been reviewed in the Guardian as part of “Hot off the press: authors pick their page-turners for summer.” The article was published online on July 4, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Louise Kennedy writes,

“How to Build a Boat is a heart-rending and delightful voyage in the company of 13-year-old Jamie O’Neill and his currach. The author Elaine Feeney has a poet’s way with words and uncanny understanding of human frailty.”

Order How to Build a Boat here!

ON CLASS

Deborah Dundas author of On Class (May 9 2023) wrote a piece on the process of writing On Class in the Literary Review of Canada. The piece “Opening Up” was published online on June 22, 2023 and appears in the print edition of their July/August issue. You can read the full piece here.

Deborah Dundas was also interviewed on Morning TV Hamilton. The interview aired on June 20, 2023. Watch the full interview here.

Order On Class here!

BIG MEN FEAR ME

Big Men Fear Me by Mark Bourrie (October 18, 2022) has been reviewed in Troy Media by Michael Taube. The article, “Four Canadian Books I Highly Recommend” was published online on July 4, 2023. Check out the full article here.

Taube writes,

“[George McCullough] is barely remembered today for several reasons, including the unfortunate bipolar disorder that led to his early and unexpected demise. Thanks to Bourrie’s well-written book, that’s no longer the case.”

Order Big Men Fear Me here!

Media Hits: INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING, ALL THINGS MOVE, ON CLASS, and more!

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DROWNING

Instructions for the Drowning by Steven Heighton (April 18, 2023) was reviewed in the New York Times by Jen Vafidis. The review was published online on May 30, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Vafidis writes,

“To read work like Heighton’s knowing that we won’t get more of it […] inspires fury in all directions. […] Every story in this collection has “it,” whatever Heighton decided “it” would be: pacing that thrills; fragile love and blind hate; descriptions you can smell and taste and hear.”

Instructions for the Drowning was reviewed in That Shakespearean Rag by Steven Beattie. The review was published online on May 23, 2023 and can be read here.

Beattie writes:

“Heighton’s almost preternatural ability to recognize what to include and what to leave out of a particular piece is most apparent in his poetry and his short fiction, where compression and precision of language combine to create meaning.”

Get Instructions for the Drowning here!

ALL THINGS MOVE

All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel by Jeannie Marshall (April 4, 2023), was reviewed in the Globe and Mail! The review was published online on June 1, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Kate Taylor writes,

“In the era of the perpetual scroll, art still asks us to stop and look, long and slowly. All Things Move is a rich vindication of one writer’s decision to do just that.”

All Things Move by Jeannie Marshall was mentioned in the New York Times as part of their “Newly Published.” The article was published online on May 24, 2023. Read the full article here.

From the article:

“The Sistine Chapel serves as inspiration and structure for this deeply contemplative account about life, family, art, and appreciation.”

All Things Move was also reviewed by Dan Dunsky in the Literary Review of Canada. The review appears online and in their print June issue. It was first published online on May 19, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Dunsky writes,

“Part meditation, part cultural criticism, part therapy, All Things Move captures the complex range of emotions that art can sometimes elicit in us, as well as the questions that may arise as a consequence.”

Get All Things Move here!

THE WORLD AT MY BACK

The World at My Back by Thomas Melle, trans. by Luise von Flotow (May 2, 2023) was featured in Words Without Borders‘ article “The Watchlist: May 2023.” The article was published online on May 31, 2023. Read the full review here.

Tobias Carroll writes,

“The World at My Back is in no way an easy read; instead, it’s a candid and frequently harrowing chronicle of its author’s struggles with mental health over the years, and the cyclical nature of its effect on his life. In von Flotow’s translation, this book becomes a source of insight into what its author went through—and what he gained and lost along the way.”

The World at My Back has been reviewed in the Ottawa Review of Books. The review was published online on May 19, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Tim Niedermann writes,

“His goal in The World at My Back […] is to show what being mentally ill is really like from the inside. That he is such a talented writer allows him to pull this off powerfully.”

The World at My Back by Thomas Melle has been excerpted in Lit Hub. The excerpt was published online on May 23, 2023. You can read the full excerpt here.

Get The World at My Back here!

ON CLASS

Deborah Dundas, author of On Class (May 9, 2023), was interviewed by the University of King’s College MFA Program for their website, published online on May 24, 2023. You can read the full interview here.

On Class by Deborah Dundas was reviewed in the Winnipeg Free Press. The review was published online on May 19, 2023. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Douglas J. Johnston calls it

“a nifty, provocative little book.”

Grab On Class here!

ON BROWSING

On Browsing by Jason Guriel (October 4, 2022) has been reviewed in Fare Foreword. The review was published online on May 23, 2023. Check out the full review here.

Katy Carl writes,

“Guriel’s browsing minds court multisensory and memorable run-ins with reality, where text and context meld to generate irreducibly personal meanings. […] Guriel wants us to remember that, as human beings, we have deep, direct, innate access to ‘human and humanist’ values.”

Neil Pasricha (author of The Book of Awesome) featured On Browsing on his blog as part of his April Book Club, published on April 29, 2023. You can read Neil’s post here.

Get On Browsing here!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) was reviewed in the New York Sun. The review was published online on May 19, 2023 and can be read here.

Carl Rollyson writes,

“The parallel tracks of Case Study are deeply satisfying because they encompass a sense of how we live day-by-day in doubt, often unaware of our own motivations.”

Get Case Study here!

Reviews, Awards, and Interviews: CASE STUDY, ORDINARY WONDER TALES, CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been reviewed by Christian Lorentzen in the New York Times! The review was published online on November 1, 2022. Read the full NYT review here.

Lorentzen writes,

“Case Study has a lot in common with the novels of Vladimir Nabokov and Roberto Bolaño, in which invented characters pass through tumultuous episodes of literary history that never quite happened, though it seems as if they should have. … Case Study is a diverting novel, overflowing with clever plays on and inversions of tropes of English intellectual and social life during the postwar decades.”

Case Study has been featured on Lit Hub as one of “18 new books to kick your November reading into gear.” The list was posted on November 1, 2022 and can be read here.

Case Study was reviewed by Jessica Brockmole for The Historical Novel Society. The review was published online on November 1, 2022. Read the full review here.

Brockmole writes,

“Case Study is a dizzying dive into British counterculture of the 1960s and the radical anti-psychiatry movement … wildly inventive and slickly written. The notebooks feel so casually and authentically from the period, with ‘Rebecca’s’ word choices and the details she includes saying as much about 1960s British society as they do about her place in it. ‘Rebecca’ is deliciously unreliable as a narrator.”

Graeme Macrae Burnet has been interviewed by Lily Meyer for Crime Reads. The interview was posted online on November 3, 2022 an can be read here.

Meyer writes,

“Burnet propels readers through the novel with his fierce, hilarious intelligence.”

Case Study has also been excerpted in Lit Hub and featured by Vol 1. Brooklyn as part of their “November 2022 Book Preview.” The excerpt, and preview were published online on November 3, 2022. Read the Lit Hub here, and Vol 1. Brooklyn here.

Grab your copy of Case Study here!

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales (November 1, 2022), was interviewed by Lisa Godfrey on CBC Ideas! The episode on hauntings aired on October 25, 2022. Emily’s segment begins at 25:00 mins. Listen to the full episode here.

Ordinary Wonder Tales has been reviewed by Kathleen Rooney in LIBER: A Feminist Review. The review will be published in print in their Winter 2022 issue. Read the full review here.

Kathleen writes,

“In Ordinary Wonder Tales, Urquhart stylishly combines her personal experiences with her academic expertise, leading to a reading experience that feels entertaining and casual yet also edifying … It’s a testament to Urquhart’s own formidable storytelling skill that each of her essays inspires a quiet awe.”

Ordinary Wonder Tales was been listed in CBC Books and Toronto Life!

The CBC Books list, “20 Canadian books we can’t wait to read in November” was published on November 2, 2022. You can check it out here.

The Toronto Life list, “Sixteen things to see, do, read and hear in Toronto this November” was published on October 28, 2022. You can read the full list here.

Order your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

THE AFFIRMATIONS

Luke Hathaway‘s poem “As the part hanteth after the water brooks” from The Affirmations (April 5, 2022), won the Confederation Poets Prize by Arc Poetry. The prize winner was announced on October 27, 2022. You can read the full announcement here.

This year’s judge, Brecken Hancock, had this to say about the winning poem:

“In 12 incredibly short lines, Luke Hathaway has captured how we survive and thrive by chance, by lucky accident. These spare lines take the reader on a profound journey with the speaker who has gone “uphill to the well / where I went, as I thought // for my water” only to find an utterly new form of thirst and its remedy waiting there instead. A previously unrecognized, but life-threatening, form of dehydration is alleviated (in what feels like the nick of time) by the startling discovery of a source to quench it. Rather than dwell on what had previously been missing, a sorrowful lack, the poem ends in affirmation—communicating a resonant relief, and, beyond that, the joy and ecstasy that can finally be embodied and expressed when our deepest needs are recognized and met.”

Get your copy of The Affirmations here!

CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH

Confessions with Keith by Pauline Holdstock (October 25, 2022), has been reviewed at Focus on Victoria on October 31, 2022. Read the whole review here.

Reviewer Amy Reiswig writes,

“Confessions with Keith reminds us that life is a raw, radiant, and ridiculous story unfolding moment by moment for everyone in their separate subjectivities. It deserves laughter. It deserves tears. It is made more bearable by books like this, the literary equivalent of uncensored midnight conversation over cups of tea or glasses—plural—of wine. What Vita observes of festival street performers could well be said of reading Holdstock’s newest creation: ‘It was a shared experience of human life, a little bit of eternity together.'”

Confessions With Keith has also been reviewed at the BC Review. Read the whole review here.

Reviewer Candace Fertile writes,

“Things going wrong on many levels is the focus of the novel, but Vita’s ability to plough through the problems and often see the humour even when exhausted is refreshing … Confessions with Keith deals with real life issues in a frenetic and funny manner.”

Get your copy of Confessions with Keith here!

THIS TIME, THAT PLACE

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories by Clark Blaise (October 18, 2022) has been excerpted at Open Book. The excerpt is from the story “Translation” and was published Nov 1, 2022. You can read it here.

This Time, That Place also received a starred review at Quill & Quire. The review was published on November 2, 2022. Check out the whole review here.

Reviewer Steven W. Beattie writes,

“Blaise is … almost preternaturally adept at noticing things … sublime technique and linguistic finesse [are] showcased in these inestimable short works.”

Pick up your copy of This Time, That Place here!

TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE

Michael Hingston, author of Try Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Kingdom of Redonda (September 13, 2022), has been reviewed by MA Orthofer in The Complete Review. The article was published on October 30, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Orthofer writes,

“Try Not to be Strange is an enjoyable account of a bizarre not-quite-real place, with a rich cast of characters—not least Hingston himself, who amusingly tracks his own obsessiveness.”

Michael Hingston has also been interviewed on Across the Pond podcast and New & Used podcast! Both episodes were published on November 1, 2022. You can listen to Across the Pond here, and New & Used here.

Get your copy of Try Not to Be Strange here!

A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE reviewed in the NEW YORK TIMES

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A Factotum in the Book Trade by Marius Kociejowski (April 26, 2022) has been reviewed by Dwight Garner in the New York Times! The review was published online on July 18, 2022.

Garner writes:

“A Factotum in the Book Trade is memorable because a) it’s well-written, and b) it’s close in touch with the books. […] He’s right about what a good bookstore should feel like. ‘I want dirt; I want chaos; I want, above all, mystery,’ he writes. ‘I want to be able to step into a place and have the sense that there I’ll find a book, as yet unknown to me, which to some degree will change my life.’ […] It’s an account of a life well, happily and grouchily lived.”

Read the full review here.

Grab your copy of A Factotum in the Book Trade here!

POGUEMAHONE: Reviews in the New York Times and more!

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POGUEMAHONE

Poguemahone by Patrick McCabe (May 3, 2022) was reviewed by John Williams in the New York Times! The review was published online on April 20, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Williams writes:

“Poguemahone is like a high dive: The toughest part of reading it might be convincing your feet to leave the board. Once you’ve done that, gravity does the rest.”

An excerpt of Poguemahone‘s New York Times review was included in LitHub‘s list of ‘5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week’! The list was posted on April 21, 2022 and can be read here.

Poguemahone‘s New York Times review was also featured in Library Journal‘s round-up posted on April 22, 2022. Check out the article here.

 

Poguemahone  was reviewed by Paul Perry in The Independent (Ireland). The review, ‘Patrick McCabe’s Novel Poguemahone is a Triumphant Bum-rush of Ribald Verse,’ was published online on April 11, 2022. Check out the full article here.

Perry writes:

“Poguemahone is a shape-shifting epic of the Irish in England, steeped in music and folklore, crammed with characters, both real and imagined, on a scale McCabe has never attempted before. Indeed, among his 14 novels and two Booker Prize nominations, this stands out as risky, experimental work by an artist reluctant to rest on his laurels. Modernist and eager to push the boundaries of his own art and the art form of the novel, here is a novelist and novel to celebrate in all their ribald, audacious, outrageous, and compelling brilliance.”

 

Poguemahone was reviewed and featured as the “Book of the Day” in The Guardian. The review was published online April 22, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Ian Duhig writes:

“A major Irish writer of the postwar generation, Patrick McCabe is best known for his early novels The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both shortlisted for the Booker prize […] His career since has shown a willingness to experiment in a wide range of forms and styles, climaxing in this verse novel, Poguemahone […] Though it won’t appeal to all fans of his earliest work, McCabe may be right when he claims that Poguemahone is his best book: it is startlingly original, moving, funny, frightening and beautiful.”

And it’s less than a month away from the North American launch of Poguemahone! Join author Patrick McCabe as he delves into his rollicking new book. This virtual launch will take place on Sunday, May 15 at 3PM ET. The event is organized by Books in Common NW and will be hosted by James Crossley.

Register for the event here!

Get your copy of Poguemahone from Biblioasis here!

 

AS YOU WERE, CHEMICAL VALLEY, A GHOST IN THE THROAT, ON TIME AND WATER, ROMANTIC : New York Times, interviews, and more!

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IN THE NEWS!

AS YOU WERE

As You Were by Elaine Feeney (October 5, 2021) has been reviewed by the New York Times in a list titled, ‘Hope Gained and Lost, in New Fiction From Around the World.’ The review was published online on January 14, 2022, and in the print edition on January 16, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Antonia Hitchens writes,

“The novel is intensely confessional … [As You Were] reads almost like a humorous screen adaptation of an illness memoir, its gaze trained more on the lived experience inside a hospital than on looming death. Feeney’s prose is intentionally not morbid; there is more levity than self-pity or wallowing in the remorselessness of fate.”

Get your copy of As You Were here!

CHEMICAL VALLEY

Chemical Valley cover

David Huebert, author of Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021), was interviewed in The Farside Review! The article was published on January 7, 2022. You can read the full interview here.

Lara Boyle writes,

“Thought-provoking, smart, and frighteningly surreal, David Huebert’s Chemical Valley is a brilliantly crafted collection of short stories that confront the violence of human nature in the natural world.”

Get your copy of Chemical Valley here!

A GHOST IN THE THROAT

A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (June 1, 2021) was reviewed in a critical essay in Ploughshares. The article was posted on January 13, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Holly M. Wendt writes,

“A Ghost in the Throat is not historical fiction, and not a novelization of Eibhlín’s life, either. The refusal to give in to sensationalism becomes a tender intimacy between writer and subject—subject who is not simply a subject, but a companion of many years by the project’s close—and this infuses the very act of art-making.”

Get your copy of A Ghost in the Throat here!

ON TIME AND WATER

On Time and Water cover

On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason (March 30, 2021) received a touching review in Yale Climate Connections. The review was posted on January 14, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Donald Wright wrote,

“Across 300-plus beautifully written pages, Magnason visits both his past and our future, at times struggling to find the words to convey the enormity of the climate system’s collapse, of what is already here and what is coming down the pipe.”

Get your copy of On Time and Water here!

ROMANTIC

Romantic (October 19, 2021) author Mark Callanan was interviewed in the Newfoundland Herald! The interview was posted online on January 17, 2021. You can read the full interview here.

Get your copy of Romantic here!

Biblioasis in The New York Times

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Hardcover $32.95
eBook $9.99

Have a look at Alan Riding’s review of Bookshops and what he has to say about author Jorge Carrión’s “Love affair with bookstores.”

“[Carrion’s] purpose is to celebrate bookstores. And he does so by wandering the globe in search of those that play — or have played — a special role in the intellectual and social lives of their communities. They become Carrión’s personal mappa mundi.”

Full Review at nytimes.com 

Bookshops has also been chosen as one of the 10 Best Books of 2017 by Maclean’s.  

Other Praise for Bookshops

 “Every bookshop is a condensed version of the world,” begins Mr. Carrión’s literary and unabashedly sentimental exploration of bookstores around the globe …  [Carrion] wanders through volume-laden aisles in Athens, Paris, Bratislava, Budapest, Tangier and Sydney, and invokes many other shops, both open and closed, telling stories about writers, readers and literary circles … By the end, you may feel poorly read—but well armed with titles and bookshops to visit on your own.” —Wall Street Journal

“Excellent…entertaining…this quietly intelligent little book speaks volumes” —Washington Post

“Sublimely entrancing…brilliant…[Carrión’s] Borgesian book—it can be opened at any point and read forward, or backwards for that matter—is not at all sad. To read is to travel in time and space, and to travel from bookshop to bookshop is an ecstatic experience for Carrión, a joy he conveys page after page.” —Maclean’s