Bright prospects

Pat St. Germain celebrates spring with a fresh batch of Canadian titles.

A History of Burning Janika Oza Mcclelland & Stewart

Winner of the 2022 O. Henry Prize for short fiction, Toronto writer Janika Oza's debut novel spans almost 100 years and four countries, starting in 1898 in India, where a 13-year-old boy is tricked into indentured servitude. Taken to Kenya to work on a railroad for British colonialists, Pirbhai is persuaded to commit a terrible act to ensure his survival. It haunts his family through the next century as they build — and are eventually forced to rebuild — their lives in Uganda, England and Canada.

Fourteen Days: A Novel Margaret Atwood and others Harpercollins

A serial novel set in Manhattan during the first weeks of the COVID-19 shutdown has neighbours gathering on an apartment rooftop each night to share stories. It features an international who's who of literati — general editor Margaret Atwood and fellow writers including Neil Gaiman, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, Celeste Ng, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, R.L. Stine, David Byrne, Candace Bushnell and many more.

The Morning Bell Brings the Broken Hearted Jennifer Manuel Douglas & Mcintyre

Teacher Molleigh Royston takes a job in the remote West Coast Indigenous community of Tawakin. After committing a cultural faux pas, she's haunted by supernatural events and soon learns about humility, community and the power of connection. Loosely based on the author's experiences as a non-indigenous teacher, the novel highlights the lack of educational resources in Indigenous communities, where school teachers tend be transient.

This Place is Who We Are: Stories of Indigenous Leadership, Resilience and Connection to Homelands

Katherine Palmer Gordon

Harbour Publishing

Inspiring profiles of 10 coastal communities in B.C. show how Indigenous peoples are reconnecting with one another, and with their lands and waterways, to restore rainforests and rebuild communities.

East Grand Lake

Tim Ryan University of Calgary Press

It's the summer of 1972, and three generations of the Murphy clan have gathered at a lakeside cottage for an annual family ritual, complete with campfire songs, dockside drama and fun in the sun. A novel in 16 stories for every Canuck who yearns for a classic summer holiday at the lake. Loons included.