We Can(ada) Read: Books That Capture The Essence of Canada
Jamie @ Books and Ladders
03 August
7 Comments
We Can(ada) Read is by Canadians for EVERYONE to learn more about some amazing Canadian authors!
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Books That Capture The Essence of Canada
THE BREAK
Author: Katherena Vermette
Publisher: Anansi Press
Publication Date: September 17, 2016
Portrayal of Canada
A powerful intergenerational family saga, The Break showcases Vermette’s abundant writing talent and positions her as an exciting new voice in Canadian literature.
Through the various perspectives of the characters is a larger, more comprehensive story about lives of the residents in Winnipeg’s North End is exposed.
This was nominated for the CBC Canada Reads in 2017 and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize in 2016.
THE BIRTH HOUSE
Author: Ami McKay
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: February 14, 2006
Portrayal of Canada
Spanning the 20th century Ami McKay takes a primitive and superstitious rural community in Nova Scotia and creates a rich tableau of characters to tell the story of childbirth from its most secretive early practices to modern maternity as we know it.
Hauntingly written and alive with historical detail, 'The Birth House' is an unforgettable, page-turning debut.
This won the Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Choice Award (2007), Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book & Book Design (2007), OLA Evergreen Award (2007).
LATE NIGHTS ON AIR
Author: Elizabeth Hay
Publisher: Emblem Editions
Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Portrayal of Canada
Harry Boyd, a hard-bitten refugee from failure in Toronto television, has returned to a small radio station in the Canadian North. There, in Yellowknife, in the summer of 1975, he falls in love with a voice on air, though the real woman, Dido Paris, is both a surprise and even more than he imagined.
One summer, on a canoe trip four of them make into the Arctic wilderness (following in the steps of the legendary Englishman John Hornby, who, along with his small party, starved to death in the barrens in 1927), they find the balance of love shifting, much as the balance of power in the North is being changed by the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline, which threatens to displace Native people from their land.
This won the Scotiabank Giller Prize (2007) and Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book (2008).
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Author: Alice Munro
Publisher: Vintage
Publication Date: January 1, 1977
Portrayal of Canada
Born into the back streets of a small Canadian town, Rose battled incessantly with her practical and shrewd stepmother, Flo, who cowed her with tales of her own past and warnings of the dangerous world outside. But Rose was ambitious - she won a scholarship and left for Toronto where she married Patrick. She was his Beggar Maid, 'meek and voluptuous, with her shy white feet', and he was her knight, content to sit and adore her.
This won the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Governor General's Literary Award in 1978.
THE SUMMER OF BITTER AND SWEET
Author: Jen Ferguson
Publisher: Heartdrum
Publication Date: May 10, 2022
Portrayal of Canada
Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She’ll be working in her family’s ice cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend—whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort—and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago without a word.
In this complex and emotionally resonant novel, debut author Jen Ferguson serves up a powerful story about rage, secrets, and all the spectrums that make up a person—and the sweetness that can still live alongside the bitterest truth.
This was an Audie Award Nominee for Young Adult (2023), Lambda Literary Award Nominee for LGBTQ+ Young Adult (2023), and Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général for Young People's Literature- Text (English-language) (2022).
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