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Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 23 items
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Serious and literary fiction, Friendship stories, Family stories
Human-narrated audio
An extraordinary and deeply satisfying story about love, betrayal, mercy, and second chances—for readers of Elizabeth Strout and Ann Napolitano…
When Stafford Hopkins loses his high-profile job in network television, his American colleagues rejoice. Canadian-born, his disdain for the industry has outrun his success, and few mourn his departure. His mercurial American wife in tow, he retreats to their luxury estate on Maui where he does what he has always done best―he rewrites the past. But a year into their exile, Stafford's defenses are crumbling, and when a letter arrives with a request from the dead to do something for the living, he is summoned home to a farm, a lake, a prison, and a dance hall where the spirit of a boy named Bobby Shepherd is waiting for him
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Historical fiction, General fiction
Human-narrated audio
Élisabeth Jossard boards a bride ship to New France with her sister Marthe, forced to start a new life after…
a scandal in her village in Normandy. She's harbouring a dark secret and hopes that by coming to Montreal—the holiest place in the world, she's been told—the saints will hear her pleas and lift the curse that plagues her. When Élisabeth's prayers go unanswered and she is unable to banish the spirit she believes is tormenting her, Marthe encourages her to turn to a powerful witch for help, the enigmatic stowaway Jeanne Roy. But Jeanne has secrets of her own, and when she refuses to help, Élisabeth's resentment kindles a dangerous fire. Inspired by the tales of Canada's Filles du Roi, The Winter Witch examines how lies, arrogance, and ignorance can lead to witch hunts in any society
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction, Historical fiction, Serious and literary fiction
Human-narrated audio
Torduvalle, Saskatchewan, 1946. Florence has created a beautiful life for herself. Her home is immaculate; she is a model employee…
at Pratt's Insurance, where she works as a secretary. Her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde—never once does she allow her brown roots to show. She dyes them every other Saturday night, without fail. But one morning, everything changes. Florence notices a new group of men at the local diner, Métis workers from out of town, hired on for the season at a nearby farm. And one of them has a connection to the past that Florence has spent her entire life outrunning. He has one simple request for her. Suddenly, Florence is thrown back into memories of her life before. Suddenly, the line between who she once was and who she has chosen to be feels very thin. And when Florence learns of the government's plans for the Métis community on the fringes of town, she will be faced with a choice—one that will shatter her carefully constructed life forever. This extraordinary novel asks us what we will do for our community, for our families, for our friends, even at our own expense. It examines the harrowing effects of choosing to live as someone else—and the radiant peace that comes from finally living one's truth. Gripping, wrenching, and utterly immersive, Wild People Quiet is a stunning achievement by a remarkable literary talent
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Multi-cultural fiction, Canadian authors (Fiction), Family stories
Human-narrated audio
All Cleo Dang has ever wanted was to be a mother. The day she discovers she's pregnant is the happiest…
of her life, especially when she learns that her best friend, Paloma, is also expecting. It's a wonderful surprise and together, they enjoy their pregnancies. But when they both go to the hospital in labor, something goes very, very wrong. Paloma comes home with a baby. Cleo does not. Now a grieving Cleo must navigate life after losing her baby. She alienates herself from the world, especially her best friend who is living the life she so desperately wanted. Forced to quit her demanding job as an actuary, Cleo manages to find a job at a funeral home where she meets a revolving door of bereaved locals and discovers the power of confronting grief.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Friendship stories, Family stories, Serious and literary fiction, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
An extraordinary and deeply satisfying story about love, betrayal, mercy, and second chances-for readers of Elizabeth Strout and Ann Napolitano…
When Stafford Hopkins loses his high-profile job in network television, his American colleagues rejoice. Canadian-born, his disdain for the industry has outrun his success, and few mourn his departure. His mercurial American wife in tow, he retreats to their luxury estate on Maui where he does what he has always done best-he rewrites the past. But a year into their exile, Stafford's defenses are crumbling, and when a letter arrives with a request from the dead to do something for the living, he is summoned home to a farm, a lake, a prison, and a dance hall where the spirit of a boy named Bobby Shepherd is waiting for him.
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Family stories, Legal stories, Serious and literary fiction
Human-narrated audio
A sharp and moving portrait of Ray - judge, single parent, and tightly leashed woman whose survival strategies seem suddenly…
to be coming apart Ray, a single mother and superior court judge, pounds a punching bag in her basement to manage her anger. She has concluded that life must be lived tightly leashed or chaos will move in. Her prime directive is to protect her daughter, Armada, from life's unruly forces. Ray deftly handles other people's problems, managing her courtroom and the politics of the judges' chambers, and defusing her neighbors' battles, all the while staying above the fray. But when her feckless, sweet brother re-enters Ray's life, bringing unpredictability and wayward emotion with him, and her sexy, but enervating Guatemalan ex crashes into her world, she realizes that her carefully piloted ship is not watertight after all - it's no better than a sieve. Cascading events reveal to Ray that suffering cannot be held at bay and that life must be lived in all its messy glory. Peopled with a cast of characters for the ages, from the eccentrics that surround Ray's courtroom and her street to a flock of recalcitrant hens, and laden with her trademark sly wit, this is Strube's best novel yet - sharp, intensely humane, moving, and funny
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Serious and literary fiction, Legal stories, Family stories, Humourous fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Ray, a single mother and superior court judge, pounds a punching bag in her basement to manage her anger. She…
has concluded that life must be lived tightly leashed or chaos will move in. Her prime directive is to protect her daughter, Armada, from life's unruly forces. Ray deftly handles other people's problems, managing her courtroom and the politics of the judges' chambers, and defusing her neighbors' battles, all the while staying above the fray. But when her feckless, sweet brother re-enters Ray's life, bringing unpredictability and wayward emotion with him, and her sexy, but enervating Guatemalan ex crashes into her world, she realizes that her carefully piloted ship is not watertight after all - it's no better than a sieve. Cascading events reveal to Ray that suffering cannot be held at bay and that life must be lived in all its messy glory. Peopled with a cast of characters for the ages, from the eccentrics that surround Ray's courtroom and her street to a flock of recalcitrant hens, and laden with her trademark sly wit, this is Strube's best novel yet - sharp, intensely humane, moving, and funny
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted)
Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction, Indigenous peoples fiction, Historical fiction, Serious and literary fiction
Human-transcribed braille
A taut, exquisitely rendered story exploring the repercussions of a woman's decision to hide her Métis identity while living in…
a small, predominantly white prairie town in the 1940s, for readers of The Berry Pickers, Tommy Orange, and The Vanishing Half. Torduvalle, Saskatchewan, 1946. Florence has created a beautiful life for herself. Her home is immaculate; she is a model employee at Pratt's Insurance, where she works as a secretary. Her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde -- never once does she allow her brown roots to show. She dyes them every other Saturday night, without fail. But one morning, everything changes. Florence notices a new group of men at the local diner, Métis workers from out of town, hired on for the season at a nearby farm. And one of them has a connection to the past that Florence has spent her entire life outrunning. He has one simple request for her. Suddenly, Florence is thrown back into memories of her life before. Suddenly, the line between who she once was and who she has chosen to be feels very thin. And when Florence learns of the government's plans for the Métis community on the fringes of town, she will be faced with a choice -- one that will shatter her carefully constructed life forever. This extraordinary novel asks us what we will do for our community, for our families, for our friends, even at our own expense. It examines the harrowing effects of choosing to live as someone else -- and the radiant peace that comes from finally living one's truth. Gripping, wrenching, and utterly immersive, Wild People Quiet is a stunning achievement by a remarkable literary talent.
Electronic braille (Uncontracted), Braille (Uncontracted)
Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction, Indigenous peoples fiction, Historical fiction, Serious and literary fiction
Human-transcribed braille
A taut, exquisitely rendered story exploring the repercussions of a woman's decision to hide her Métis identity while living in…
a small, predominantly white prairie town in the 1940s, for readers of The Berry Pickers, Tommy Orange, and The Vanishing Half. Torduvalle, Saskatchewan, 1946. Florence has created a beautiful life for herself. Her home is immaculate; she is a model employee at Pratt's Insurance, where she works as a secretary. Her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde -- never once does she allow her brown roots to show. She dyes them every other Saturday night, without fail. But one morning, everything changes. Florence notices a new group of men at the local diner, Métis workers from out of town, hired on for the season at a nearby farm. And one of them has a connection to the past that Florence has spent her entire life outrunning. He has one simple request for her. Suddenly, Florence is thrown back into memories of her life before. Suddenly, the line between who she once was and who she has chosen to be feels very thin. And when Florence learns of the government's plans for the Métis community on the fringes of town, she will be faced with a choice -- one that will shatter her carefully constructed life forever. This extraordinary novel asks us what we will do for our community, for our families, for our friends, even at our own expense. It examines the harrowing effects of choosing to live as someone else -- and the radiant peace that comes from finally living one's truth. Gripping, wrenching, and utterly immersive, Wild People Quiet is a stunning achievement by a remarkable literary talent.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Multi-cultural fiction, Canadian authors (Fiction), Family stories
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
All Cleo Dang has ever wanted was to be a mother. The day she discovers she's pregnant is the happiest…
of her life, especially when she learns that her best friend, Paloma, is also expecting. It's a wonderful surprise and together, they enjoy their pregnancies. But when they both go to the hospital in labor, something goes very, very wrong. Paloma comes home with a baby. Cleo does not. Now a grieving Cleo must navigate life after losing her baby. She alienates herself from the world, especially her best friend who is living the life she so desperately wanted. Forced to quit her demanding job as an actuary, Cleo manages to find a job at a funeral home where she meets a revolving door of bereaved locals and discovers the power of confronting grief.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Historical fiction, General fiction, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Élisabeth Jossard boards a bride ship to New France with her sister Marthe, forced to start a new life after…
a scandal in her village in Normandy. She's harbouring a dark secret and hopes that by coming to Montreal-the holiest place in the world, she's been told-the saints will hear her pleas and lift the curse that plagues her. When Élisabeth's prayers go unanswered and she is unable to banish the spirit she believes is tormenting her, Marthe encourages her to turn to a powerful witch for help, the enigmatic stowaway Jeanne Roy. But Jeanne has secrets of her own, and when she refuses to help, Élisabeth's resentment kindles a dangerous fire. Inspired by the tales of Canada's Filles du Roi, The Winter Witch examines how lies, arrogance, and ignorance can lead to witch hunts in any society.
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Suspense and thrillers, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Human-narrated audio
Zorah Sharaf could do no wrong. Zorah Sharaf brought shame upon her family. What's the truth? Depends on who you…
ask. The Sharaf family is the picture of success. Prosperous, rich, happy. They came to this country as refugees with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And now, after years of hard work, they live in the most exclusive neighborhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her father's eye. When an unthinkable tragedy strikes, everyone is left reeling. There is talk that behind closed doors the Sharafs' happy household was anything but. Did the Sharaf family achieve the American dream? Or was the image of the model immigrant family just a façade? Like a literary game of ping-pong, Good People compels the reader to reconsider what might have happened even on the previous page. It's a riveting, provocative story of family-sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, and the communities that claim us as family in difficult times.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Canadian authors (Fiction), Serious and literary fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Moving on is hard. Even harder when it's from a make-believe friend-someone, or in this instance, some thing-who's been your…
strongest source of support. On what should be one of the happiest days ever, the day her granddaughter is born, Minoo is faced with a terrible choice: make a clean break from her constant companion, a sock puppet named Ecology Paul, or lose her daughter and granddaughter, and maybe all of the people she loves. On an emotional drive home from the hospital, Ecology Paul shares the story of how Minoo got to this point, recalling Minoo's early teenage pregnancy in Iran, her exile to Canada, her questions about her sexuality, and how a ragtag sock puppet came to her when she desperately needed to be seen. Full of imagination, whimsy and heart, The Unravelling of Ou follows Minoo's struggles to justify the puppet's existence and eventually, untangle herself from her dependence on it and reconnect with the people she loves.
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Serious and literary fiction, Romantic suspense, Historical fiction, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Human-narrated audio
From award-winning, bestselling author Wayne Johnston comes a boisterous, sweeping tragicomic saga of faith, loyalty, and family secrets that refuse…
to stay buriedAt twenty-eight, Vivvy Holloway is nearly the same height as when she was five. Though she hides her face behind a veil, a different colour and fabric for each day of the week, she brandishes an acerbic wit that far outweighs her small stature. Having just spent eight years of the 1930s in a convent failing to become a nun, Vivvy is now returning to Holloway Hall, the largest private dwelling in Newfoundland and the crumbling seat of her formidable family.Vivvy’s sister Freda, a doctor, now rules the estate and its fortune. She is also its sole occupant, save for the five-year-old "special member of the family" known as Ivan, who came home with Freda after her failed marriage in the Congo, where she and her husband were missionaries until tragedy struck. Tasked with caring for the boy while Freda works long shifts—and displays increasingly erratic behaviour—Vivvy begins to suspect that something is dangerously amiss in Holloway Hall.Over the course of a single turbulent week, Vivvy faces off against her domineering sister, her ten cleric brothers, and a host of meddling hangers-on, unearthing long-buried secrets that threaten not only her and Ivan’s place in the family, but the fate of the entire Holloway name.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Serious and literary fiction, Family stories, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
"I said, ‘the pair of us look like some scratch ‘n win tickets,’ and Earn said, ‘More like scratch ‘n…
lose.’" Knickle is a young Islander with no friends, direction, or purpose in his life. When he drives to northern New Brunswick to pick up an acquaintance’s brother from a mental health hospital, the pair make a sudden decision to travel further west to try to find a life amidst the chaos of Upper Canada. In the big city of Tah-ron-ah for the first time, Knickle discovers love, hope, and profound loss. A hilarious, sensitive, and heady working-class odyssey rife with metaphorical richness and references to literature, film, and 90s music, Your Breath in Charcoal peers into the mind of its irrepressible and relentlessly quotable East Coast everyman. A follow-up to Some Hellish, Herring’s breathtaking Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize-winning debut novel, Your Breath in Charcoal marks yet another galvanizing entry into the East Coast literary canon. Production note: The EPUB format of this book was created through eBOUND's Accessible Conversion Project.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction, Serious and literary fiction, Historical fiction, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Torduvalle, Saskatchewan, 1946. Florence has created a beautiful life for herself. Her home is immaculate; she is a model employee…
at Pratt's Insurance, where she works as a secretary. Her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde-never once does she allow her brown roots to show. She dyes them every other Saturday night, without fail. But one morning, everything changes. Florence notices a new group of men at the local diner, Métis workers from out of town, hired on for the season at a nearby farm. And one of them has a connection to the past that Florence has spent her entire life outrunning. He has one simple request for her. Suddenly, Florence is thrown back into memories of her life before. Suddenly, the line between who she once was and who she has chosen to be feels very thin. And when Florence learns of the government's plans for the Métis community on the fringes of town, she will be faced with a choice-one that will shatter her carefully constructed life forever. This extraordinary novel asks us what we will do for our community, for our families, for our friends, even at our own expense. It examines the harrowing effects of choosing to live as someone else-and the radiant peace that comes from finally living one's truth.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Multi-cultural fiction, Serious and literary fiction, General fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A lost river, a lost aunt, a found literary life: from the cult-favourite poet and author of The Baudelaire Fractal…
comes a glittering and erudite new novel of Paris. Some ruins are invisible. Under the pavements of Paris there lies buried an ancient river, the Bièvre. For years, Lucy Frost has walked along these streets, unaware of the water and history under her feet, on her way to clean the apartments of Paris’s academic class. As she begins to study and transcribe the inherited notebooks and papers of her great-aunt, a teacher and researcher who disappeared years earlier, she commits to continuing her aunt’s youthful research on the Bièvre, mining the river’s documentary traces in the works of Rousseau, Rabelais, Hugo, Chateaubriand, and the like. She uncovers a history of industry: paper mills, dyeing workshops, tanneries, and textile manufacturers – and laundries. She finds resonances of her own labour in the history of the river’s laundresses. On stolen time at work, and in her insomniac hours of nightwriting, she fills notebooks with these woven stories and descriptions of obsolete sites, textiles, cosmologies, and voices, constructing her own forms of relation with the lost.Riverwork unearths not just an urban river but also a philosophy of research and the archive, a politics of hydrology, an ontology of ageing and belatedness, and a consideration of the unrepresented labour of women, past and present. Along the way it brings to life, in pyrotechnic prose, a long-gone Paris and both its domestic workers and its writers. Production note: The EPUB format of this book was created through eBOUND's Accessible Conversion Project.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted), DAISY Audio (Direct to Player), DAISY Audio (Zip), DAISY text (Direct to player), DAISY text (Zip), Word (Zip), ePub (Zip)
Suspense and thrillers, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Zorah Sharaf could do no wrong. Zorah Sharaf brought shame upon her family. What's the truth? Depends on who you…
ask. The Sharaf family is the picture of success. Prosperous, rich, happy. They came to this country as refugees with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And now, after years of hard work, they live in the most exclusive neighborhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her father's eye. When an unthinkable tragedy strikes, everyone is left reeling. There is talk that behind closed doors the Sharafs' happy household was anything but. Did the Sharaf family achieve the American dream? Or was the image of the model immigrant family just a façade? Like a literary game of ping-pong, Good People compels the reader to reconsider what might have happened even on the previous page. It's a riveting, provocative story of family-sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, and the communities that claim us as family in difficult times.
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction, Historical fiction, Serious and literary fiction
Human-narrated audio
When Eliza comes home from her first year at residential school, she is barely recognizable to her Nôhkom, Swan. Once…
bright-eyed and curious, Eliza is now stick-thin with roughly shorn hair and dull, listless eyes. Gathering bag in hand, Swan gently leads Eliza on long walks through untouched prairie grasses, harvesting medicines, certain that the power of the land will heal her. And as they walk, she shares stories of her own suffering when her traditional ways of being and living collided with the greed and violence of encroaching settlers. For Eliza, Swan's journey offers a master class in how to face unspeakable adversity and remain true to herself.Decades later, Eliza and her daughter are at a crossroads. When Ella comes home from her first year at university wearing bell-bottoms, braids, and a beaded headband, Eliza is horrified. Eliza fought her whole life to be free of the oppression that comes with being Cree, and she can’t fathom why her daughter would choose to proclaim her heritage so proudly, disregarding the consequences. With a steaming cup of tea in hand, Eliza follows in her grandmother’s footsteps, sharing with Ella the story of the adversities she faced in her own relentless pursuit of freedom.But Ella's idea of freedom isn’t the same as Eliza’s. And when tragedy strikes, Ella must decide how to build her life in the aftermath and navigate how best to keep the stories of her family alive when the world around her seems to want them buried along with the legions of the missing and the dead.
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Historical fiction, Serious and literary fiction, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Human-narrated audio
In The Small Ones, Nazanine Hozar crafts a gripping fable about children who are caught up in a military insurgence…
along the Iran–Iraq border in the early 1980s (based on the real-life conflict of that time) and forced to become soldiers and martyrs. This ragtag group of boys and one small girl create a little family of their own even as they yearn to return to their lost homes and safety. The Small Ones is at heart about fathers and sons—unreliable father figures in the repressive Iran of Hozar’s telling whose personal quests for power lead to pain and bloodshed. It is also a tale about what it takes to not only survive but end such wars. The story centres on narrator Amir and his best friend Clay, who appears to be both a human boy and a creature of myth. With them, we embark on a full-circle journey, following the ancient river Karun along the borderland until freedom is in reach, but at a terrible cost. An extraordinary novel that takes us unflinchingly into a storm of deadly conflict through the eyes of its youngest participants, The Small Ones is a searing look at cycles of coercion, bloodshed and war, and the cost of escaping them for the hope of a better life.