There’s nothing I love more than meeting a character in a book who shares my love of reading. From Helene Hanff in 84 Charing Cross Road to A.J. Fikry and Amelia in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry to Matilda in Roald Dahl’s beloved book of the same name to Anne in Anne of
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | PURITY – JONATHAN FRANZEN
I’ve been seeing Jonathan Franzen’s books around for years, but to this point hadn’t actually read any of them (admittedly their length intimidated me somewhat). So when the book fairy (AKA Random House Canada) delivered an ARC of his upcoming novel, Purity, to my mailbox, it seemed that fate had intervened. I went into
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RELEASE DAY REVIEW | EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING – NICOLA YOON
I’ve been hearing about this book for months now, just waiting until I could get my hands on a copy. But I didn’t actually know much about it other than everyone was loving it up. When it arrived in my mailbox, I immediately tore into it. 24 hours later, I was done. It’s the
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE – JESSICA KNOLL
Luckiest Girl Alive is unlike any other book I’ve read. Don’t get me wrong, there are elements to it that will feel familiar. But taken as a whole it completely surprised me. The book begins with a perfect girl. She’s got a high-powered job working for a magazine in New York, she’s pretty and
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | WIND/PINBALL – HARUKI MURAKAMI
Haruki Murakami’s newest book is actually a set of two novels (or novellas) that were the very first stories he ever wrote. This is the first time in years these two stories have been available in print – much less in English – and they provide a fascinating glimpse of this venerable writer’s beginnings.
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE LITTLE PARIS BOOKSHOP – NINA GEORGE
“There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person only…A book is both medic and medicine at once. It makes a diagnosis as well as offering therapy. Putting the right novels to the appropriate ailments: that’s how I
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE SHORE – SARA TAYLOR
Welcome to The Shore: a collection of small islands sticking out from the coast of Virginia into the Atlantic Ocean. Where clumps of evergreens meet wild ponies, oyster-shell roads, tumble-down houses, unwanted pregnancies, murder, storm-making and dark magic in the marshes. . . Situated off the coast of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay, the group of
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LIFE AFTER LIFE – KATE ATKINSON
“Is there Life After Life, chance after chance to rewrite one’s destiny? That is the question posed by Atkinson’s tale and brought to life by the miracle of her talent.” —Toronto Star What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? During a snowstorm
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE – ANN PACKER
From the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, a sweeping, masterful new novel that explores the secrets and desires, the remnant wounds and saving graces of one California family, over the course of five decades. Bill Blair finds the land by accident, three wooded acres in a rustic
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BOOK REVIEW | NOTHING LIKE LOVE – SABRINA RAMNANAN
A sparkling, witty and confident debut from a rising Canadian star whose Trinidadian roots and riotous storytelling heritage inform her completely delightful novel. It is 1974 in the town of Chance, Trinidad–home to a colourful cast of cane farmers, rum-drinkers, scandal-mongers . . . and a bright 18-year-old schoolgirl named Vimla Narine. After passing
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD – JENNIFER EGAN
Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SWAMPLANDIA! – KAREN RUSSELL
The Bigtree alligator wrestling dynasty is in decline — think Buddenbrooks set in the Florida Everglades — and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, is swiftly being encroached upon by a sophisticated competitor known as the World of Darkness. Ava, a resourceful but terrified twelve year old, must manage seventy gators and
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RELEASE DAY REVIEW | HAUSFRAU – JILL ALEXANDER ESSBAUM
Anna Benz, an American in her late thirties, lives with her Swiss husband Bruno and their three young children in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zürich. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE HALF BROTHER – HOLLY LECRAW
A passionate, provocative story of complex family bonds and the search for identity set within the ivy-covered walls of a New England boarding school When Charlie Garrett arrives as a young teacher at the shabby-yet-genteel Abbott School, he finds a world steeped in privilege and tradition. Fresh out of college and barely older than
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD – ANNE TYLER
From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author–now in the fiftieth year of her remarkable career–a brilliantly observed, joyful and wrenching, funny and true new novel that reveals, as only she can, the very nature of a family’s life. “It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon.” This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story
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RELEASE DAY REVIEW | IF I FALL, IF I DIE – MICHAEL CHRISTIE
A heartfelt and wondrous debut, by a supremely gifted and exciting new voice in fiction. Will has never been to the outside, at least not since he can remember. And he has certainly never gotten to know anyone other than his mother, a fiercely loving yet wildly eccentric agoraphobe who drowns in panic at
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE WOMAN WHO WENT TO BED FOR A YEAR – SUE TOWNSEND
The day her children leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. She’s had enough – of her kids’ carelessness, her husband’s thoughtlessness and of the world’s general indifference. Brian can’t believe his wife is doing this. Who is going to make dinner? Taking it badly, he rings Eva’s mother – but she’s
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | STATION ELEVEN – EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
An audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, from the author of three highly acclaimed previous novels. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to
