An engrossing, timely, and contemporary novel about the bonds between twins, about sexuality and gender fluidity, and about the messy complexities of modern family life ? the much-anticipated new novel in more than a decade by acclaimed writer Keith Maillard.

Dr. Erica Bauer ? an identical twin ? studies twins at the university in Vancouver. Through the course of her research, she meets a set of preteen twins who are evidently fraternal, but who insist emphatically that they are identical. Their mother, Karen Oxley, is a West Van single mum whose life is on the wrong road ? and who discovers an urgent need to put it back on the right one. As Erica sets out to help the twins, their lives become increasingly intertwined in unexpected ways.

Twin Studies is a masterful novel that explores the complicated bonds between twins and siblings, friends and lovers; the role of class and money; and the nature of gender and sexuality. It's a novel with characters who are real, their relationships a rich world that readers will thoroughly lose themselves in. No other contemporary novel so deftly explores the intersection between our inner lives and our public lives ? that "we're not what people see."

Keith Maillard is the author of fourteen novels, including Two Strand River, Gloria, The Clarinet Polka, Difficulty at the Beginning, and most recently Twin Studies. He has won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Literary Prize and the Governor General's Literary Awards. Keith was born and raised in West Virginia, and now lives in Vancouver. He has been a musician, a contributor for CBC Radio, a freelance photographer, and a journalist. He teaches at the University of British Columbia.

A beautiful story of strangers who shape each other's lives in fateful ways, All of Us in Our Own Lives delves deeply into the lives of women and men in Nepal and into the world of international aid.

Ava Berriden, a Canadian lawyer, quits her corporate job in Toronto to move to Nepal, from where she was adopted as a baby. There she struggles to adapt to her new career in international aid and forge a connection with the country of her birth.

Ava's work brings her into contact with Indira Sharma, who has ambitions of becoming the first Nepali woman director of a NGO; Sapana Karki, a bright young teenager living a small village; and Gyanu, Sapana's brother, who has returned home from Dubai to settle his sister's future after their father's death. Their journeys collide in unexpected ways.

All of Us in Our Own Lives is a stunning, keenly observant novel about human interconnectedness, about privilege, and about the ethics of international aid (the earnestness and idealism and yet its cynical, moneyed nature).

Manjushree Thapa was born in Kathmandu and raised in Nepal, Canada, and the United States. She has written several books of fiction and non-fiction. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, the London Review of Books, Newsweek, and the Globe and Mail. All of Us in Our Own Lives is the first novel she wrote after moving to Toronto.

A compelling, haunting novel about a man experiencing gaps in time, and the pain of living inside an anxious mind. Winner of the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award

Felix wakes up one day to find he has a girlfriend he doesn't recognize. He finds a novel, with his name on the cover, that he doesn't remember writing. He's been losing time since university. Sometimes these gaps are minutes, sometimes months. But now he begins experiencing flashbacks and moments where he gets a glimpse of an unsettling future. He will do anything necessary to keep the people he loves safe . . .

Hummingbird is a haunting, powerful novel, told in unadorned language that expresses with clarity the pain of living inside a disturbed mind. Like Anakana Schofield's ground-breaking Martin John, Hummingbird is at times uncomfortable, but written with deep compassion and a sense of urgency.

Devin Krukoff is the author of Compensation, Flyways, and Hummingbird, winner of the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award. He won the M&S Journey Prize for short fiction in 2005. He lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with his family.