Happy Birthday Canada!

Some of our favourite books of late have been Canada based and three upcoming ones we’re very excited about are Canadian too so perfect for Canada day is a little round up of Canada goodness –

Saskatchewan – A Place called Winter – Patrick Gale

Inspired by a real life family mystery of a family member who emigrated to Canada, Patrick Gale has drawn a sobering picture of love, family duty, self discovery and hope.

Harry Cane is a quiet unassuming man living in London and married to respectable Winnie Wells. But behind the facade, the dark truth is bubbling and scandal is not far away. When it becomes too much to bear, Harry is forced to leave everything behind and to emigrate to the newly colonized Canadian prairies to work as a homesteader.

In a place called Winter, conditions are tough and this new life very different to what he expected. Winter can be harsh and Canadian winters the most difficult of all…..but that Gale evokes the landscape like no one else.

Whistler, BC and Saskatchewan – The Mountain Can Wait – Sarah Leipciger

This is the story of the haunting relationship between father and son against the raw rugged mountains of British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

Tom Berry is a single father and a loner – quite at home and at peace with his wilderness home. He’s struggled since the death of his wife to raise his sons with the tough love and respect he shows the mountains. his forestry business has taught him all about strength and perseverance and the need for man to respect his surroundings. His relationship with his sons may not be as easy however.

When Curtis is involved in  a  tragic accident and then flees the scene, Tom goes off hunting once again but this time for his son, Whether he can really track him down and reach him this time however is another question.

Three Canadian gems we’re very excited about reading –

The Gallery of Lost Species – Nina Berkhout – Vancouver and Ottawa

Vivienne and Edith are sisters growing up in Ottawa, Canada in a very dysfunctional family where love and patience are not welcome house guests. Their mother sits on her bed of unrealized dreams and regrets and so is fixated on pushing Vivienne into beauty pageants ad more. Edith feels constantly lives in her sister’s shadow, but her imagination is allowed to grow so she she lives in a world of unicorns. oddities and extinct animals

As Vivienne begins her descent into addition, it’s up to Edith as to whether she wants to stay in her own safe world now or leave trying to track down extinct animals and instead try to bring her own sister back from the brink of life.

Michael Crummey  – Sweetland – Newfoundland

The inhabitants of this remote island in Newfoundland have lived and died together. Now, each of them has been offered a generous compensation package  from the government to leave. Moses Sweetland will not leave however. He is haunted by the past and feels he has to stay. When finally he is forced to head to the mainland, he fakes his own death and stays on the island. The only other people here now are the ghosts of the past and the ghosts of the islanders whose porch lights still seem to come on at night….

And one for the bravest of the brave (which we’re not sure we are but we’ll read it when the sun is out and there are no shadows around –

Terry Boyle Haunted Ontario

Terry Boyle takes us on a tour of haunted Ontario and around some of the most spooky and haunted sites around. We’re going to journey to the Victorian Beild House Inn in Collingwood and wait for the deceased doctor to make a room call, then pay a visit to see if we can spot the woman in white at the Joseph Brant Museum and ask her what she is looking for. Maybe we’ll stop by historic Fort George and see if we can see the ghosts of the past still pacing the grounds.

Canada has some cracking fiction and non fiction to share with the world and these are our five recommendations but there are tons more. The World needs more Canada? Well yes it does but if you can’t get there for real these books might just be the next best thing.

Canadian fiction eh?  We love it. Happy Birthday Canada!!