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A Minor Chorus
by Billy-Ray Belcourt
An urgent first novel about breaching the prisons we live inside from one of Canada’s most daring literary talents. An unnamed narrator abandons his unfinished thesis and returns to northern Alberta in search of what eludes him: the shape of the novel he yearns to write, an autobiography of his rural hometown, the answers to existential questions about family, love, and happiness. What ensues is a series of conversations, connections, and disconnections that reveals the texture of life in a town literature has left unexplored, where the friction between possibility and constraint provides an insistent background score. Whether he’s meeting with an auntie distraught over the imprisonment of her grandson, engaging in rez gossip with his cousin at a pow wow, or lingering in bed with a married man after a hotel room hookup, the narrator makes space for those in his orbit to divulge their private joys and miseries, testing the theory that storytelling can make us feel less lonely.
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Searching for Terry Punchout
by Tyler Hellard
Adam Macallister's sports writing career is about to end before it begins, but he's got one last shot: a Sports Illustrated profile about hockey's most notorious goon, the reclusive Terry Punchout-who also happens to be Adam's estranged father. Adam returns to Pennington, Nova Scotia, where Terry now lives in the local rink and drives the Zamboni. Going home means drinking with old friends, revisiting neglected relationships, and dealing with lingering feelings about his father and dead mother-and discovering that his friends and family are kinder and more complicated than he ever gave them credit for. "Searching for Terry Punchout" is a charming and funny tale of hockey, small-town Maritime life, and how, despite our best efforts, we just can't avoid turning into our parents.
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The Cure for Drowning
by Loghan Paylor
Born Kathleen to an immigrant Irish farming family in southern Ontario, Kit McNair has been a troublesome changeling since, at ten, they fell through the river ice and drowned--only to be nursed back to life by their mother's Celtic magic. A daredevil in boy's clothes, Kit chafes at every aspect of a farmgirl's life, driving that same mother to distraction with worry about where Kit will ever fit in. When Rebekah Kromer, an elegant German-Canadian doctor's daughter, moves to town with her parents in April 1939, Rebekah has no doubt as to who 19-year-old Kit is. Soon she and Kit, and Kit's older brother, Landon, are drawn tight in a love triangle that will tear them and their families apart, and send each of them off on a separate path to war.
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Foe
by Iain Reid
We don't get visitors. Not out here. We never have. Junior and Hen are a quiet married couple. They live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other. One day, a stranger from the city arrives with surprising news: Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm...very far away. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Hen won't have a chance to miss him at all, because she won't be left alone--not even for a moment. Hen will have company. Familiar company. Foe examines the nature of domestic relationships, self-determination, and what it means to be (or not to be) a person. An eerily entrancing page-turner, it churns with unease and suspense from the first words to its shocking finale.
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It's Different This Time
by Joss Richard
In this sweeping, second-chance romance, a twist of fate forces two former roommates back into their beloved New York City brownstone where they must confront the events that led to their estrangement--and the unresolved feelings lingering between them. Confronted with the consequences of their choices years before, they must now navigate the minefield of their past the best way they know how: together. Second chances are always a risk, but maybe, if they get it right and are finally honest with each other and with themselves, it could be different this time.
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Afterbirth
by Emma Cleary
An unsettling, hypnotic descent into the visceral heart of mommy horror, "Afterbirth" is a story of fractured sisterhood, aching hunger, and irrevocable transformation--reverberating with the echoes of classic horror cinema. In the wake of a fraught and ill-omened romance, Brooke arrives in Vancouver to care for her sister Izzy, who is preparing to undergo reproductive surgery. But Izzy's rapidly decaying apartment building, its hallways stalked by an ominous figure known only as Medusa, offers little of the refuge the sisters need. Seeking solace in the horror movies her ex-girlfriend loved, Brooke soon finds traces of horror bleeding from the screen into their lives. Old wounds reopen and new tensions surface.
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The Book Tour
by Emily Ohanjanians
Sparks fly between a lively debut author and her grumpy publicist on book tour in this sizzling rom-com from a fresh new voice in contemporary romance. Despite her popular podcast and sold-out speaking events, Ana Movilian still feels like she has to prove herself. To her family, who can't believe she quit med school to build an influencer career, and to literary snobs, who decry her buzzy self-help book. Happily, her upcoming book tour is the perfect chance to show the world just how bright her star can shine. That is, until her beloved publicist resigns the night before their plane is set to take off. Her replacement? Ryan Grant, who specializes in highbrow nonfiction, and whose perma-scowl in every interaction with Ana makes one thing clear: he does not get her book.
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Honeysuckle
by Bar Fridman-Tell
Loosely based on Welsh mythology, "Honeysuckle" is a heartbreaking fable of longing and need - for love, for control, and for freedom - and a psychological fairy tale perfect for readers of Eowyn Ivey and V. E. Schwab. Daye was woven together from flowers and magic to be the perfect playmate for Rory, a young boy left isolated in a remote country estate. In the early years, their friendship, almost eerily in sync, is everything the two lonely children could dream of. But the threat of Daye literally - and gruesomely - falling apart whenever the seasons change drives Rory to learn ever deeper and stranger magic, until the line between what he can do and what he should do begins to blur.
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A Widow's Charm
by Caitlyn Paxson
In this witty fantasy romance debut, a widow blackmails her rakish necromancer neighbor to bring her husband back to life and save her home - only to find herself falling for him instead. Lady Hildegarde Croft is accustomed to changes in position. After all, she rose from maidservant to lady of the manor when she married Lord Thorgoode Croft. But when he drops dead quite unexpectedly, the plans that would have protected her and the people of Croftholde from her malevolent brother-in-law die along with him. What's a widow to do?
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Good People
by Patmeena Sabit
A riveting, provocative, and unforgettable story of community, family, and identity in our increasingly divided times. After fleeing a war-torn Afghanistan, the Sharaf family resettles as refugees in Northern Virginia. After many years of hard work, the father has become a successful businessman. Now 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 and the family is thrust into the court of public opinion. 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?
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