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Showing 1 - 15 of 15 items
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Family stories, General fiction
Human-narrated audio
A stark, incendiary novel about two sisters seeking refuge with a reclusive cult in the Adirondacks: a parable of power…
and how it is claimed, wielded—and how it transforms."Stampeding, mesmeric." —Claudia Dey"Awesome in atmosphere. . . . Utterly electrifying." —Waubgeshig RiceOn a summer evening in 1952, young sisters Zina and Presendia run hand-in-hand into the wooded hills of upstate New York, fleeing their family farmhouse as it collapses into flames. Deep in the Adirondack mountains, they encounter a gritty band of "settlers" occupying a dilapidated sportsmen’s complex nestled along a secluded mountain lake. The girls soon become inculcated in the spiritual training and rustic hedonism of the group, attracting the interest of its profane but visionary founder: a rough-necked charismatic named Peter. Selected by Peter from the ragged but devoted congregation for her erudition and steely temper, Zina is tasked with codifying his revolutionary teachings in a book—a testament to rouse the masses, prophesying the rise of a new consciousness from the ashes of decadent mid-century American society. As ghosts from the sisters’ violent past resurface, and the construction of a major highway extension near the settlement accelerates Peter’s anarchic agenda, Zina must choose between turning her back on her new life and adopted flock, or seizing the power she so desires and taking her place next to Peter in the great cataclysm to come. A haunting, strikingly vivid depiction of an isolated world, power and its reproductions, and the forgotten, darker side of postwar American life, The Damagers is potent, unsettling fiction from an exciting literary talent.
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Family stories, Multi-cultural fiction, LGBTQ+ fiction
Human-narrated audio
A noirish page-turner about a mysterious disappearance and a moving portrait of a Chinese Canadian family navigating insecurities, expectations, and…
simmering anger in their small BC town.Casper Han grew up the dutiful son of immigrants who never felt entirely welcome in their remote corner of British Columbia. Now an adult, living in Vancouver with a boyfriend whose privilege he quietly resents, Casper rarely returns to his hometown, the site of a grief his family doesn’t discuss: the loss of his twin brother, Sam.Over twenty years have passed since Sam went missing, and a crisis brings Casper and his siblings back. Their father has vanished, only to be found wandering the vast woods beyond the family home, confused and clutching a pair of scissors, seemingly trapped in the memory of that tragic night. In order to move forward, the Han family must finally confront the past and untangle the mystery of what really happened to Sam.Combining the atmosphere and intrigue of a cracking good suspense novel with the depth of a rich character study, The Tiger and the Cosmonaut tells the story of a family whose members have long made themselves small and quiet and obedient—and what happens when the cycle is finally broken.
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)
Family stories, Multi-cultural fiction, LGBTQ+ fiction
Synthetic audio, Human-transcribed braille
"A noirish page-turner about a mysterious disappearance and a moving portrait of a Chinese-Canadian family navigating insecurities, expectations, and simmering…
anger in their small BC town. Casper Han grew up the dutiful son of immigrants who never felt entirely welcome in their remote corner of British Columbia. Now an adult, living in Vancouver with a boyfriend whose white privilege he quietly resents, Casper rarely returns to his hometown, the site of a grief his family doesn't discuss: the loss of his identical twin, Sam. Over twenty years have passed since Sam went missing, and a pressing crisis has brought Casper and his siblings back. Their father has vanished, only to be found wandering the vast woods beyond the family home, confused and showing signs of memory loss. In order to move forward, the Han family, accustomed to fleeing their problems and accepting the hand dealt to them, must stay put and finally confront the past--untangling the mystery of what really happened the night of Sam's disappearance, and how the town failed them in the aftermath of it."
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Family stories, LGBTQ+ fiction, Canadian authors (Fiction)
Human-narrated audio
A queer Palestinian refugee plans to come out at his elaborate birthday dinner party in this tragicomic modern reimagining of…
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.Firas Dareer wakes up on his twenty-third birthday with a sense of purpose: today he’ll jump from a Stage 3 to a Stage 6 in his self-determined Coming Out Scale, professing his sexuality to a captive audience of immediate and extended family, friends, acquaintances, coworkers, and neighbours. But despite the meticulously designed invitations, carefully chosen place settings and floral centerpieces, painstakingly curated playlist, and agonizingly fretted-over menu, factors begin to spin out of his control.Threatening to thwart his big moment are his younger brother, whose mental fragility requires him to be monitored at all times; his cantankerous grandfather, who’s just completed his third escape from the retirement home; the Dareers’ embittered housekeeper (and Firas’s arch nemesis), who could scoop the story before he gets the chance; his harried boss, who on this of all days calls him into work at the architecture firm, where his colleagues share a talent for butchering his name; and his mother, whose accidental text message may have blown the cover of an illicit extra-marital affair. There’s also the fact that Firas too has found himself in a love triangle of sorts, choosing between soft and steady Tyrese and fiery Kashif, who makes a sport out of demonstrating how Palestinian he is.As the future Firas has precisely architected for himself slips further out of his grasp, the past comes crashing in like a wrecking ball. Sharp, darkly funny, and full of surprises, Three Parties pays twisted homage to a literary classic, gleefully upends the western coming-out narrative, and sensitively explores the traumas and pressures faced by Palestinian immigrants—all in the span of a single life-changing day.
DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Social issues, Customs and cultures, Canadian authors (Non-fiction)
Human-narrated audio
A vital, fearless memoir explores what it means to be a Palestinian in this moment, the effects of the genocide…
on Palestinian art and imagination, and that to even claim a belonging to the land from a country thousands of miles away is an act of subversion—a book that Omar El Akkad says "so perfectly contextualizes and humanizes so much of what has led us to this awful moment, and one that will be remembered long after." Imagination is a more powerful force than hope. Acclaimed author Saeed Teebi was at work on his first novel when the attacks on Gaza began in late 2023. The violence and cruelty of the attacks, accompanied by the assent and silence of international governments, stunned many across the globe, like Teebi, into a new state of permanent horror. What does it mean to be of the Palestinian diaspora in such a moment? What does it mean to be of a people who have sustained such a large-scale assault not only on their homeland, but their entire identity? What is the role of art, of language—of imagination—in asserting one's identity, when that very assertion is read as an act of subversion? In this incisive work, Teebi explores, with searing, razor-sharp prose, the effects of genocide on the bodies, minds, and imaginations—of Palestinians especially, and humanity in general. This is at once a memoir of one family's displacement, a scathing indictment of global complicity in the face of brutality, and a profound rumination on art and imagination as a means of defiance. It is an astonishing work of resistance by a major intellect, and it is both urgent and timeless
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, General fiction, Family stories
Human-narrated audio, Automated braille
In this stunning tale of love and loss, a middle-aged cartographer, suffering from memory loss and claustrophobia, hikes through the…
interior of British Columbia in search of a treehouse where he spent one memorable summer on the run with his four siblings. In Rufous and Calliope, Sarah Louise Butler takes readers deep into the rugged British Columbia Interior, where the mysteries of nature collide with the fragile threads of memory. Rufous Flanagan, a modern-day cartographer, embarks on a solo trek through an ancient mountain pass in search of the treehouse hideaway where he spent one memorable childhood summer on the run with his three older half-siblings and his twin sister, Calliope. With every step, the vast, untamed wilderness presents both a physical and emotional challenge, as Rufous must confront not only treacherous terrain, but the unravelling of his own mind. His memories-sometimes vivid, sometimes slipping away-become a map guiding him through towering forests, dry creek beds and smoke-filled skies. Yet, in this wilderness, not everything is as it seems. Echoes of the past lead Rufous on a journey that blurs the line between dream and reality. As the elements close in, this novel offers an unforgettable tale of survival, memory and the bond between siblings
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)
LGBTQ+ fiction, Serious and literary fiction, General fiction, Short stories
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
An arresting, vividly imaginative collection of stories capturing the complexity of intimacy and the depths of the unravelling mind.Infatuation and…
violence grow between two girls in the enchanting wilderness of postwar Australia as they spin disturbing fantasies to escape their families. Two young men in the midst of the 1968 French student revolts navigate — and at times resist — the philosophical and emotional nature of love. An orphaned boy and his estranged aunt are thrown together on a quiet peninsula at the height of the Troubles in Ireland, where their deeply rooted fear attracts the attention of shape-shifting phantoms of war.The five long-form stories in A Song for Wildcats are uncanny portraits of grief and resilience and are imbued with unique beauty, insight, and resonance from one of the country's most exciting authors.A RARE MACHINES BOOK
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)
Ghost and horror stories, Serious and literary fiction, Science fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A taut and uncanny thriller about one girl’s search for home, melding time travel, magic realism, horror, and literary suspense.…
One forty-below December night, 18-year-old Ash Hayes finds herself locked out of her home in rural Minnesota. She seeks shelter from the freezing cold with neighbours she hasn’t yet met. The next morning, everything is off-kilter – the house has no mirrors or modern technology, and all the windows blocked. When Ash tries to call her parents, their numbers are disconnected. One of the strange inhabitants is a doctor, who offers Ash a terrible form of help and won’t take no for an answer. In her efforts to get out of the house, Ash finds herself transported to an even stranger place and time, setting off a chain of events that connect with (and alter) her past and her future. For fans of Mona Awad and Emily St. John Mandel, The Longest Night is a high-stakes, genre-twisting story about searching for something stable in a world where reality is ever-changing and can’t be trusted.
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)
General fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A modern, class-conscious Mrs. Dalloway, this unsettling novel dissects common narratives of family and community, showing the fragile ties that…
hold us together.A spring day in an average gentrifying neighbourhood begins unremarkably enough; by evening someone has died. The local residents go about their daily routines: Nat, a middle-aged queer mother of two, feigns normalcy as she worries about her daughter and her taciturn, loner son locked in his room upstairs. Her friend Maddy, a failed actress and fellow parent, and her husband plan to go to Nat's for dinner. Next door, Ilya, still recovering from a gruesome industrial accident, is struggling to renovate a fixer-upper, but a buried stream keeps threatening to flood the basement. The troubled residents stumble through their errands and to-do lists, but each seemingly inconsequential exchange tightens in around the neighbourhood, until finally tragedy strikes, leaving it forever changed. With crystalline prose that balances emotional complexity and a hint of satire, Property explores the thorniness of class and privilege in a city stretched to the breaking point. The novel shows the complicated politics of queer respectability, friendship, the real and imaginary perils of raising children, and the ways that we hurt one another without meaning to.
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)
Family stories
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A queer Palestinian refugee plans to come out at his elaborate birthday dinner party in this tragicomic modern reimagining of…
Virginia Woolf&’s Mrs. Dalloway.Firas Dareer wakes up on his twenty-third birthday with a sense of purpose: today he&’ll jump from a Stage 3 to a Stage 6 in his self-determined Coming Out Scale, professing his sexuality to a captive audience of immediate and extended family, friends, acquaintances, coworkers, and neighbours. But despite the meticulously designed invitations, carefully chosen place settings and floral centerpieces, painstakingly curated playlist, and agonizingly fretted-over menu, factors begin to spin out of his control.Threatening to thwart his big moment are his younger brother, whose mental fragility requires him to be monitored at all times; his cantankerous grandfather, who&’s just completed his third escape from the retirement home; the Dareers&’ embittered housekeeper (and Firas&’s arch nemesis), who could scoop the story before he gets the chance; his harried boss, who on this of all days calls him into work at the architecture firm, where his colleagues share a talent for butchering his name; and his mother, whose accidental text message may have blown the cover of an illicit extra-marital affair. There&’s also the fact that Firas too has found himself in a love triangle of sorts, choosing between soft and steady Tyrese and fiery Kashif, who makes a sport out of demonstrating how Palestinian he is.As the future Firas has precisely architected for himself slips further out of his grasp, the past comes crashing in like a wrecking ball. Sharp, darkly funny, and full of surprises, Three Parties pays twisted homage to a literary classic, gleefully upends the western coming-out narrative, and sensitively explores the traumas and pressures faced by Palestinian immigrants—all in the span of a single life-changing day.
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)
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
The first novel from award-winning poet Ben Ladouceur, I Remember Lights depicts a time when the world promised everything to…
everyone, however irresponsibly.In summer 1967, love is all you need... but some forms of love are criminal. As the spectacular Expo ' 67 celebrations take shape, a young man new to Montreal learns about gay life from cruising partners, one-night stands, live-in lovers, and friends. Once Expo begins, he finds romance with a charismatic visitor, but their time is limited. When the fireworks wither into smoke, so do their options.A decade later, during the notorious 1977 police raid on a gay bar called Truxx, he comes to understand even more about the bitter choice, so often made by men like him, between happiness and safety.I Remember Lights is a vital reminder of forgotten history and a visceral exploration of the details of queer life: tribulation and joy, exile and solidarity, cruelty and fortitude.
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)
General non-fiction
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A vital, fearless memoir explores what it means to be a Palestinian in this moment, the effects of the genocide…
on Palestinian art and imagination, and that to even claim a belonging to the land from a country thousands of miles away is an act of subversion—a book that Omar El Akkad says &“so perfectly contextualizes and humanizes so much of what has led us to this awful moment, and one that will be remembered long after.&” Imagination is a more powerful force than hope. Acclaimed author Saeed Teebi was at work on his first novel when the attacks on Gaza began in late 2023. The violence and cruelty of the attacks, accompanied by the assent and silence of international governments, stunned many across the globe, like Teebi, into a new state of permanent horror. What does it mean to be of the Palestinian diaspora in such a moment? What does it mean to be of a people who have sustained such a large-scale assault not only on their homeland, but their entire identity? What is the role of art, of language—of imagination—in asserting one&’s identity, when that very assertion is read as an act of subversion? In this incisive work, Teebi explores, with searing, razor-sharp prose, the effects of genocide on the bodies, minds, and imaginations—of Palestinians especially, and humanity in general. This is at once a memoir of one family&’s displacement, a scathing indictment of global complicity in the face of brutality, and a profound rumination on art and imagination as a means of defiance. It is an astonishing work of resistance by a major intellect, and it is both urgent and timeless.
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)
General fiction, Family stories
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A stark, incendiary novel about two sisters seeking refuge with a reclusive cult in the Adirondacks: a parable of power…
and how it is claimed, wielded—and how it transforms.&“Stampeding, mesmeric.&” —Claudia Dey&“Awesome in atmosphere. . . . Utterly electrifying.&” —Waubgeshig RiceOn a summer evening in 1952, young sisters Zina and Presendia run hand-in-hand into the wooded hills of upstate New York, fleeing their family farmhouse as it collapses into flames. Deep in the Adirondack mountains, they encounter a gritty band of &“settlers&” occupying a dilapidated sportsmen&’s complex nestled along a secluded mountain lake. The girls soon become inculcated in the spiritual training and rustic hedonism of the group, attracting the interest of its profane but visionary founder: a rough-necked charismatic named Peter. Selected by Peter from the ragged but devoted congregation for her erudition and steely temper, Zina is tasked with codifying his revolutionary teachings in a book—a testament to rouse the masses, prophesying the rise of a new consciousness from the ashes of decadent mid-century American society. As ghosts from the sisters&’ violent past resurface, and the construction of a major highway extension near the settlement accelerates Peter&’s anarchic agenda, Zina must choose between turning her back on her new life and adopted flock, or seizing the power she so desires and taking her place next to Peter in the great cataclysm to come. A haunting, strikingly vivid depiction of an isolated world, power and its reproductions, and the forgotten, darker side of postwar American life, The Damagers is potent, unsettling fiction from an exciting 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, War stories, Romance
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
A cross-cultural love story set against the dramatic backdrop of the Allied invasion of Europe in WWII. Vancouver, 1942. Josiah…
Chang arrives in the bustling city ready to serve his country in the war against fascism, but Chinese Canadians are barred from joining the army out of fear they might expect citizenship in return. So, Josiah heads to the shipyard to find work as a riveter, fastening together the ribs and steel plates of Victory ships. One night, Josiah spots Poppy singing at a navy club. Despite their different backgrounds, they fall for each other instantly and begin a starry-eyed romance that lasts until the harsh reality of their situation is made clear. Determined to prove himself, Josiah takes a train to Toronto where he’s finally given the chance to enlist. After volunteering for the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and jumping into Normandy on D-Day, he must fight through the battlefields of Europe to make it back to the woman he loves. By turns harrowing and exhilarating, The Riveter explores what one man must sacrifice to belong to the only country he has ever called home.
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)
Poetry
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
The poems in Wellwater, Karen Solie’s sixth collection, explore the intersection of cultural, economic, and personal ideas of “value,” addressing…
housing, economic and environmental crisis, and aging and its incumbent losses. In an era of accelerating inequality, places many of us thought of as home have become unaffordable. In “Basement Suite,” the faux-utopian economy of Airbnb suggests people with property “share” it with us and, presumably, we should be grateful. In “Parables of the Rat” the speaker feels affinity with scavengers while also wanting the rats gone. Having grown up in Saskatchewan on a small family farm, Solie sees the economic and environmental crises as inseparable. Climate change has made small farming increasingly untenable, allowing overbearing corporate control of food production. But hope, Solie argues, is as necessary to addressing the crises of our time as bearing witness, in poems that celebrate wonder and persistence in the non-human world. Tamarack forests in Newfoundland that grow inches over hundreds of years, the suddenly thriving pronghorn antelope, or a new, unidentified and ineradicable climbing vine, all hint at renewal, and a way to move forward.