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Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner Sean Michaels' luminous new novel takes readers on a lyrical joy ride—seven, epic days in Silicon Valley…
with a tall, formidable poet (inspired by the real-life Marianne Moore) and her unusual new collaborator, a digital mind just one month old. It's both a love letter to and an aching examination of art-making, family, identity and belonging.Dear Marian, the letter from the Company begins. You are one of the great writers of this century.At 75, Marian Ffarmer is almost as famous for her signature tricorn hat and cape as for her verse. She has lived for decades in the one-bedroom New York apartment she once shared with her mother, miles away from any other family, dedicating herself to her art. Yet recently her certainty about her choices has started to fray, especially when she thinks about her only son, now approaching middle age with no steady income. Into that breach comes the letter: an invitation to the Silicon Valley headquarters of one of the world's most powerful companies in order to make history by writing a poem.Marian has never collaborated with anyone, let alone a machine, but the offer is too lucrative to resist, and she boards a plane to San Francisco with dreams of helping her son. In the Company's serene and golden Mind Studio, she encounters Charlotte, their state-of-the-art poetry bot, and is startled to find that it has written 230,442 poems in the last week, though it claims to only like two of them.Over the conversations to follow, the poet is by turns intrigued, confused, moved and frightened by Charlotte's vision of the world, by what it knows and doesn't know ("Do you remember being born?" it asks her. Of course Marian doesn't, but Charlotte does.) This is a relationship, a friendship, unlike anything Marian has known, and as it evolves—and as Marian meets strangers at swimming pools, tortoises at the zoo, a clutch of younger poets, a late-night TV host and his synthetic foam set—she is forced to confront the secrets of her past and the direction of her future. Who knew that a disembodied mind could help bend Marian's life towards human connection, that friendship and family are not just time-eating obligations but soul-expanding joys. Or that belonging to one&’s art means, above all else, belonging to the world.
When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to…
craft a new space.Helen Knott&’s debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, in her highly anticipated second book, Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy.Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was.Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
The Buddhist Chef is back with a collection of 75+ rustic, flavorful vegan recipes perfect for sharing with all your…
family and friends.Full of traditional, crowd-pleasing recipes, veganized and packed full of flavor, The Buddhist Chef's Homestyle Cooking is a warm-hearted, comforting collection of recipes. The recipes are inspired by the two universal themes at the heart of every great meal—flavor and enjoying it with those you love—and are brought together with a dash of The Buddhist Chef's signature sense of humor. As with The Buddhist Chef&’s previous books—The Buddhist Chef and The Buddhist Chef&’s Vegan Comfort Cooking—this is a book you will turn to again and again for reliable recipes that always wow with taste and texture and show just how simple putting together a great meal can be. The Buddhist Chef&’s Homestyle Cooking includes recipes for:Comforting favorites for gathering around the table: Vegan Tuscan Soup, Macaroni Salad with Jalapeño-Marinated Tofu, Vegan Fried Chicken, Shawarma Tofu Wraps, and Ratatouille Lasagna with Almond Ricotta.A whole new world of vegan snacking: Veggie Pâté, Zucchini Fritters with Tzatziki, Buffalo Cauliflower, and Bruschetta Portobellos.The joy of vegan baking: Chocolate Mug Cake, Flaky Apple Tart, or a Trio of Vegan Cupcakes.Whether it&’s a one-dish wonder for a quick weeknight family dinner or a variety of vegan snacks and baked goods for a weekend get-together, The Buddhist Chef&’s Homestyle Cooking is full of comforting vegan recipes for sharing with family and friends!
A collection of beautiful, vibrant, vegetable-forward recipes from awarding-winning, farm-to-table chef Michael Smith.From vegetable-forward dishes to full vegetarian meals, eating…
plants is more than just good for us. We thrive when we eat more vegetables. Inspired by the bounty of his culinary farm at the Inn at Bay Fortune, chef Michael Smith shares everything that he has learned about vegetable cookery—ideas, techniques, and recipes—in this stunning cookbook so you can develop your own vegetable cooking style that suits your lifestyle. Whether leaning into eating more vegetables or going meat-free a few days a week, you&’ll find unique, flavour-packed recipes where vegetables are always the star.Farmhouse Vegetables features a wide array of unique and approachable recipes, and simple pantry staples, to easily boost your cooking to include more vegetables from mains, sides, and even drinks and desserts, including:Kabocha Squash and Ancho Cider Broth with sage, pumpkin seed goat cheese pesto, and spicy roasted chickpeasLentil Soup with pea and mint fritters, and lentil sproutsSoba Noodle Bowl with golden tofu, garden peas, cinnamon basil, and miso carrot brothWhole Roasted Turnip with cranberry rosemary chutneyBasil Ratatouille and Swiss Chard Wraps with tomato marigold salsaPotato-Crusted Smoked Salmon Potato Cakes with arugula dill salad and maritime mustard picklesPotato, Leek, Mushroom, and Chicken Skillet StewIce Cream Sandwiches with carrot cake cookies and parsnip ice cream Through mouthwatering recipes, compelling essays, and gorgeous food and landscape photography, Michael shares his journey farming and cooking his own organic vegetables. You&’ll find lots of ways to continue enjoying meat (or not) on your own terms while making vegetables (and lots of fruit) your first choice in the kitchen.
Explore the &“not traditional but personal&” Sichuan flavours of chef, entrepreneur, and internet sensation Fly By Jing's savoury, spicy chili…
crisp through 85 hot recipes for everything from drinks to dessert.Born in Chengdu and raised everywhere, chef and entrepreneur Jing Gao has introduced America to the hot, tingly sensation of chili crisp and the Sichuan flavours that inspire it. Now, in her first cookbook, she shows you that nearly every dish can be elevated with Sichuan flavours, and she takes you on a unique journey from the Sichuan province to your own kitchen stove, all while sharing her personal take and reflections on this storied cuisine.Rooted in tradition but made for the modern kitchen, these 85 recipes invite you to explore the nuances of Sichuan flavours and try new ingredients. With gorgeous photography and punchy writing, Jing shows you how to incorporate these flavours in just about everything, including:Snacks like Zhong Dumplings and Deviled Tea EggsMains like Hongshao Carnitas Tacos, Fish Fragrant Crispy Eggplant, and Spicy Scallion Oil Noodles Desserts and drinks like Chili Crisp Sundae with Fish Sauce Caramel Brittle, Poached Pear in Sichuan Pepper Syrup, and Baijiu NegroniThe Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp is about chili crisp, but that&’s not all it is. It&’s a story of resilience, breaking free from tradition, and writing new narratives. Grab yourself a jar of Sichuan Chili Crisp and dive in!
A searing and hypnotic tour de force about a woman, long caught in her charismatic father's web, who strives to…
make a life—and art—of her own.To be loved by your father is to be loved by God.So says Mona Dean--playwright, actress and daughter to a man famous for one great novel, and in fruitless pursuit of the next, whose needs and insecurities exert an inescapable pull and exact an immeasurable toll on the women of his family: Mona, her sister, her half-sister, their mothers. His infidelity destroyed Mona's childhood, setting her in opposition to a cold, cruel stepmother who, though equally damaged, disdains her for being broken. Then, just as Mona is settling into her life as an adult and fledgling artist, he begins a new affair and takes her into his confidence. Mona delights--painfully, parasitically--in his attention. When he inevitably confesses to his wife, Mona is cast as the agent of disruption, punished for her father's crimes and ejected from the family.Mona&’s tenuous stability is thrown into chaos. Only when she suffers an incalculable loss—one far deeper and more defining than family entanglements—can she begin supplanting absent love with real love. Pushed to the precipice, she must decide how she wants to live, what she most needs to say, and the risks she will take to say it.Claudia Dey chronicles our most intimate lives with penetrating insight and devilish humour. A novel as volatile and far-reaching as its title, Daughter is an obsessive, blazing examination of the forces that drive us to become, to create and to break free.
A Most Anticipated Book Pick by Toronto Star, CBC, The Walrus, Good Morning America, Bustle, CrimeReads, Electric Literature, Debutiful, Ms.…
Magazine, The Nerd Daily, and PasteA mind-bending, gripping novel about Native life, motherhood and mental health that follows a young Mohawk woman who discovers that the picture-perfect life she always hoped for may have horrifying consequencesOn the surface, Alice is exactly where she should be: She&’s just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her charming husband, Steve is nothing but supportive; and they&’ve recently moved into a new home in a wealthy neighborhood in Toronto. But Alice could not feel like more of an imposter. She isn&’t connecting with Dawn, a struggle made even more difficult by the recent loss of her own mother, and every waking moment is spent hiding her despair from their white, watchful neighbors. Even when she does have a minute to herself, her perpetual self-doubt hinders the one vestige of her old life she has left: her goal of writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story.At first, Alice is convinced her discomfort is of her own making. She has gotten everything she always dreamed of, after all. But then strange things start happening. She finds herself losing bits of time, hearing voices she can&’t explain, and speaking with things that should not be talking back to her, all while her neighbors&’ passive-aggressive behavior begins to morph into something far more threatening. Though Steve assures her this is all in her head, Alice cannot fight the feeling that something is very, very wrong, and that in her creation story lies the key to her and Dawn&’s survival. . . . She just has to finish it before it&’s too late.Told in Alice&’s raw and darkly funny voice, And Then She Fell is an urgent and unflinching look at inherited trauma, womanhood, denial, and false allyship, which speeds to an unpredictable—and surreal—climax.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS&’ CHOICE • &“The Brothers Grimm meet Black Mirror meets Alice in Wonderland. . . .…
In seven remixed fairy tales, Link delivers wit and dreamlike intrigue.&”—Time Finalist for the Kirkus Prize • &“Thought-provoking and wonderfully told . . . so seamlessly entwines the real with the surreal that the stories threaten to slip into reality, resonating long after reading.&”—BuzzFeed A new collection from one of today&’s finest short story writers, MacArthur &“Genius Grant&” fellow Kelly Link, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble—featuring illustrations by award-winning artist Shaun TanFinding seeds of inspiration in the stories of the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers—characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose.In &“The White Cat&’s Divorce,&” an aging billionaire sends his three sons on a series of absurd goose chases to decide which child will become his heir. In &“The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear,&” a professor with a delicate health condition becomes stranded for days in an airport hotel after a conference, desperate to get home to her wife and young daughter, and in acute danger of being late for an appointment that cannot be missed. In &“Skinder&’s Veil,&” a young man agrees to take over a remote house-sitting gig for a friend. But what should be a chance to focus on his long-avoided dissertation instead becomes a wildly unexpected journey, as the house seems to be a portal for otherworldly travelers—or perhaps a door into his own mysterious psyche.Twisting and turning in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable—these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the realm of short fiction.
From acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided…
Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and about who deserves to be believed.It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years. Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life, and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems. Andrew Bogle meanwhile grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. He knows that the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.The &“Tichborne Trial&”—wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title—captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task…Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity, and the mystery of &“other people.&”
FEATURED IN QUILL & QUIRE'S 2023 FALL PREVIEWTHE GLOBE AND MAIL: BOOKS TO READ IN FALL 2023CBC BOOKS CANADIAN FICTION TO READ…
IN FALL 2023PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BIG INDIE BOOKS OF FALL 2023From the author of Maidenhead, a reverse cautionary tale about a young woman exploring the boundaries of sex and belonging in the early 2000sDistraught that her teenage daughter is in love with a woman a decade older, Yara’s mother sends her away from their home in Brazil to Israel, on a Birthright trip for Jewish youth. Freed from her increasingly controlling and jealous girlfriend, Yara is determined to forge her own path and follow her desires. But Birthright takes a debaucherous turn, and Yara flees Israel for Toronto and then California. As she wanders, Yara is forced to reframe her relationship and her ideas around consent. Set in the sex-tape-panicked early 2000s, Yara is a reverse cautionary tale about what the body can teach us."Tamara Faith Berger is one of our best writers of the body, capturing in sharp, red-hot prose its raw animal urges, its often confused and contradictory desires, and the way our search for pleasure can be both liberatory and self-annihilating. Like Israel, bodies are contested territories, and in Berger's revelatory new novel, Yara seeks to wrest control and meaning from the forces that seek to instrumentalize hers: nationalism, capitalism, pornography, and lovers." – Jordan Tannahill, author of The Listeners"Yara is a complicated novel about the confusions of consent and kinship, the way love makes victims of us all, told with cool, epigrammatic verve. As raw, destabilizing and searching as its titular protagonist, it's Berger's best book yet." – Jason McBride, author of Eat Your Mind"Canada’s finest and boldest writer. Tamara Faith Berger is my favourite ball buster." – Anakana Schofield, author of Bina: A Novel in Warnings
A breathtaking and mysterious new novel from the beloved Anne Michaels, internationally bestselling author of Fugitive Pieces and The Winter…
Vault.1917. On a battlefield near the River Aisne, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory—a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night, his childhood on a faraway coast—as the snow falls.1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near another river—alive, but not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and endeavours to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts whose messages he cannot understand. So begins a narrative that spans four generations, moments of connection and consequence igniting and re-igniting as the century unfolds. In luminous moments of desire, comprehension, longing, and transcendence, the sparks fly upward, working their transformations decades later. This resonance through time—not only of actions but also of feelings and perceptions—desire in its many forms—are at the heart of this novel&’s profound investigation. Held is a deeply affecting and intensely beautiful novel, full of unforgettable characters and imagery, wisdom and compassion. It explores the deepest mysteries, and the ways in which desire in its many forms—and perhaps the deepest desire, to find meaning—manifests itself. Held moves through history to light upon Darwin, Sir Ernest Rutherford, North Sea ganseys, early photography, Ella Mary Leather, modern field hospitals…while lovers find each other and snow drifts down across the centuries. From the WW1 battlefield where the novel begins, and its opening lines, Held is alive with seeking: "We know life is finite. Why should we believe death lasts forever?&”
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and…
medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret. The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years. Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants. A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years. New York Times Bestseller
From one of Canada&’s most beloved performing artists comes an audacious work of non-fiction that explores the stories that shape…
us and the reach that the past can have across generations.Growing up north of Toronto, R.H. Thomson&’s imagination was captured by romantic notions of war. He spent his days playing with toy soldiers on the carpet of his grandmother&’s house, recreating the Battle of Britain with model planes in his bedroom, or sitting at the local theatre watching World War II B movies—ones that offered a very clear perspective on who were the heroes and who the villains; which side were the victors and which the vanquished. Yet Thomson&’s childhood was also shaped by the spirits of real-life warriors in his family, their fates a brutal and more complicated reminder of the true human cost of war. Eight of Robert&’s great uncles—George, Joe, Jack, Harold, Arthur, Warren, Wildy, and Fred—fought in the First World War, while his great Aunt Margaret served as a wartime surgical nurse in Europe. Five of the great uncles—George, Joe, Fred, Wildy, and Warren—were killed in battle while two others—Jack and Harold—would return home greatly diminished, spending the rest of their lives in and out of sanitariums, their lungs scarred by disease and poison gas. Throughout their lives, the great uncles, as well as great aunts and cousins, were faithful letter writers, their correspondence offering profound insights into their experiences on the front lines to their loved ones back home, a somber record of the sacrifice the family paid. In By the Ghost Light, R.H. Thomson offers an extraordinary look at his family&’s history while providing a powerful examination of how we understand war and its aftermath. Using his family letters as a starting point, Thomson roams through a century of folly, touching on areas of military history, art, literature, and science, to express the tragic human cost of war behind the order and calm of ceremonial parades, memorials, and monuments. In an urgent call for new ways to acknowledge the dead, R.H. has created &“The World Remembers,&” an ambitious international project to individually name each of the millions killed in the First World War. Epic in its scope and incredibly intimate in its exploration of lives touched by the tragedy of war, By the Ghost Light is a truly original book that will challenge the way we approach our history.
From one of contemporary literature&’s most exciting new voices, a haunting story centered on the Hungarian polymath John von Neumann,…
tracing the impact of his singular legacy on the dreams and nightmares of the twentieth century and the nascent age of AIBenjamín Labatut&’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times&’ Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.A prodigy whose gifts terrified the people around him, John von Neumann transformed every field he touched, inventing game theory and the first programable computer, and pioneering AI, digital life, and cellular automata. Through a chorus of family members, friends, colleagues, and rivals, Labatut shows us the evolution of a mind unmatched and of a body of work that has unmoored the world in its wake.The MANIAC places von Neumann at the center of a literary triptych that begins with Paul Ehrenfest, an Austrian physicist and friend of Einstein, who fell into despair when he saw science and technology become tyrannical forces; it ends a hundred years later, in the showdown between the South Korean Go Master Lee Sedol and the AI program AlphaGo, an encounter embodying the central question of von Neumann's most ambitious unfinished project: the creation of a self-reproducing machine, an intelligence able to evolve beyond human understanding or control.A world of beauty and fabulous momentum, The MANIAC's unique blend of fact and fiction confronts us with the deepest questions we face as a species.
The riveting true story of one of Canada’s worst mining disasters, told in the voices of the men who survived…
itThey said it was the world’s deepest and most dangerous coal mine. Those who made that claim were probably correct. What is certain is that in October 1958, the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation’s No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, was a leading candidate for both those dubious distinctions. The mine was the proverbial “disaster waiting to happen.” And it did. Springhill was the quintessential one-industry town, whose existence depended on coal, a commodity with a dying market. And yet something far worse was soon to come. On the night of October 23, 1958, a “bump” in the mine—actually a small earthquake—shook the ground beneath the town. Seventy-five miners died and scores more were injured in what remains one of Canada’s worst underground disasters. The lives of the survivors were shattered, and Springhill would never be the same again. In compelling detail, Ken Cuthbertson tells the stories of three of the miners and one of the doctors who cared for them following the disaster. This remarkable book is based on historical documents and interviews, as well as new interviews with the last of the surviving miners and their loved ones. It is a story of heroism, sacrifice and the indomitable strength of the human spirit.
WINNER OF THE 2023 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NONFICTIONFor readers of Crying in H Mart and Wintering, an unforgettable…
memoir about a family secret revealed by a DNA test, the lessons learned in its aftermath, and the indelible power of love.Three months after Kyo Maclear&’s father dies in December 2018, she gets the results of a DNA test showing that she and the father who raised her are not biologically related. Suddenly Maclear becomes a detective in her own life, unravelling a family mystery piece by piece, and assembling the story of her biological father. Along the way, larger questions arise: what exactly is kinship? And what does it mean to be a family? Thoughtful in its reflections on race and lineage, unflinching in its insights on grief and loyalty, Unearthing is a captivating and propulsive story of inheritance that goes beyond heredity. What gets planted, and what gets buried? What role does storytelling play in unearthing the past and making sense of a life? Can the humble act of tending a garden provide common ground for an inquisitive daughter and her complicated mother? As it seeks to answer these questions, Unearthing bursts with the very love it seeks to understand.
From the award-winning, bestselling author of The Innocents, a dark, enthralling novel about love and its limitations, the corruption of…
power and the power of corruption.In an isolated outport on Newfoundland's northern coastline, Abe Strapp is about to marry the daughter of a rival merchant to cement his hold on the shore when the Widow Caines arrives to throw the wedding and Abe's plans into chaos. That ruthless act of sabotage is the opening salvo in a battle between the man and woman who own Mockbeggar's largest mercantile firms, each fighting for the scarce resources of the north Atlantic fishery, each seeking a measure of revenge on the person they despise most in the world. As their unshakeable animosity spirals further each year into vendettas and violence, the community is increasingly divided and even the innocents in Mockbeggar find themselves forced to take sides, with devastating consequences. Through merciless seasons of uncertainty and want, through predatory storms and pandemics and marauding privateers, it is the human heart that reveals itself to be the most formidable and unpredictable adversary for each person drawn, inevitably and helplessly, into that endless feud. Compulsively readable and uncompromising, The Adversary is a pitch-perfect evocation of a lost time, and a shadowed mirror to our modern politics of grievance and retribution. It is Michael Crummey's finest novel to date.
One of Canada&’s foremost authors and journalists, offers a gripping account of the contest between John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson,…
two prime ministers who fought each other relentlessly, but who between them created today&’s Canada. John Diefenbaker has been unfairly treated by history. Although he wrestled with personal demons, his governments launched major reforms in public health care, law reform and immigration. On his watch, First Nations on reserve obtained the right to vote and the federal government began to open up the North. He established Canada as a leader in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and took the first steps in making Canada a leader in the fight against nuclear proliferation. And Diefenbaker&’s Bill of Rights laid the groundwork for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He set in motion many of the achievements credited to his successor, Lester B. Pearson.Pearson, in turn, gave coherence to Diefenbaker&’s piecemeal reforms. He also pushed Parliament to adopt a new, and now much-loved, Canadian flag against Diefenbaker&’s fierce opposition. Pearson understood that if Canada were to be taken seriously as a nation, it must develop a stronger sense of self. Pearson was superbly prepared for the role of prime minister: decades of experience at External Affairs, respected by leaders from Washington to Delhi to Beijing, the only Canadian to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. Diefenbaker was the better politician, though. If Pearson walked with ease in the halls of power, Diefenbaker connected with the farmers and small-town merchants and others left outside the inner circles. Diefenbaker was one of the great orators of Canadian political life; Pearson spoke with a slight lisp. Diefenbaker was the first to get his name in the papers, as a crusading attorney: Diefenbaker for the Defence, champion of the little man. But he struggled as a politician, losing five elections before making it into the House of Commons, and becoming as estranged from the party elites as he was from the Liberals, until his ascension to the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1956 through a freakish political accident. As a young university professor, Pearson caught the attention of the powerful men who were shaping Canada&’s first true department of foreign affairs, rising to prominence as the helpful fixer, the man both sides trusted, the embodiment of a new country that had earned its place through war in the counsels of the great powers: ambassador, undersecretary, minister, peacemaker. Everyone knew he was destined to be prime minister. But in 1957, destiny took a detour.Then they faced each other, Diefenbaker v Pearson, across the House of Commons, leaders of their parties, each determined to wrest and hold power, in a decade-long contest that would shake and shape the country. Here is a tale of two men, children of Victoria, who led Canada into the atomic age: each the product of his past, each more like the other than either would ever admit, fighting each other relentlessly while together forging the Canada we live in today. To understand our times, we must first understand theirs.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • FINALIST FOR THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR…
NONFICTION • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN NONFICTION • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES&’ TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A stunning account of the colossal wildfire at Fort McMurray, and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind from the award-winning, best-selling author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce.Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian • TIME • The Globe and Mail • The New Yorker • Financial Times • CBC • Smithsonian • Air Mail Weekly • Slate • NPR • Toronto Star • The Washington Post • The Times • Orion MagazineIn May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada's petroleum industry and America's biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—John Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world. For hundreds of millennia, fire has been a partner in our evolution, shaping culture, civilization, and, very likely, our brains. Fire has enabled us to cook our food, defend and heat our homes, and power the machines that drive our titanic economy. Yet this volatile energy source has always threatened to elude our control, and in our new age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in previously unimaginable ways. With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America's oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters. John Vaillant's urgent work is a book for—and from—our new century of fire, which has only just begun.
The long-awaited memoir, generously illustrated with never-before-seen photos, from the iconic Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Rush bassist, and…
New York Times bestselling author of Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass.Geddy Lee is one of rock and roll's most respected bassists. For nearly five decades, his playing and work as co-writer, vocalist and keyboardist has been an essential part of the success story of Canadian progressive rock trio Rush. Here for the first time is his account of life inside and outside the band.Long before Rush accumulated more consecutive gold and platinum records than any rock band after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, before the seven Grammy nominations or the countless electrifying live performances across the globe, Geddy Lee was Gershon Eliezer Weinrib, after his grandfather was murdered in the Holocaust.As he recounts the transformation, Lee looks back on his family, in particular his loving parents and their horrific experiences as teenagers during World War II.He talks candidly about his childhood and the pursuit of music that led him to drop out of high school.He tracks the history of Rush which, after early struggles, exploded into one of the most beloved bands of all time.He shares intimate stories of his lifelong friendships with bandmates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart—deeply mourning Peart’s recent passing—and reveals his obsessions in music and beyond.This rich brew of honesty, humor, and loss makes for a uniquely poignant memoir.