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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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 | A LITTLE LIFE – HANYA YANAGIHARA
Brace yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably breaks through into the light. Truly an amazement—and a great gift for
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RELEASE DAY REVIEW | MISS EMILY – NUALA O’CONNOR
The American debut of an award-winning Irish writer that brings to life Emily Dickinson and will enthrall fans of Longbourn and Mrs. Poe. Nuala O’Connor’s enchanting American debut novel, Miss Emily, reimagines the private life of Emily Dickinson, one of America’s most beloved poets, through her own voice and through the eyes of her family’s
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | A GOD IN RUINS – KATE ATKINSON
In Life After Life Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula’s beloved younger brother Teddy – would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th
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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 | GOD HELP THE CHILD – TONI MORRISON
The new novel from Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. Spare and unsparing, God Help the Child is a searing tale about the way childhood trauma shapes and misshapes the life of the adult. At the center: a woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness
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BOOK REVIEW | I CAPTURE THE CASTLE – DODIE SMITH
Dodie Smith is best known for her children’s book, 101 Dalmations, but I Capture the Castle is by far my favourite of the two. I first read this book when I was about 14 years old. I remember abandoning reality and diving into it every afternoon after school for as long as I could
