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Wish You Were Here A Novel9780735276987 Paperback FICTION / Women On Sale Date:June 14, 2022$22.00 CAD 5.48 x 8.25 x 0.76 in | 0.64 lb | 400 pages Carton Quantity:24 Vintage Canada-
Marketing Copy
Description
#1 New York Times Bestseller and a national and international bestseller
A deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis.
Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galapagos—days before her thirtieth birthday.
But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn tells her he has to stay to work at the hospital. You should still go, he tells her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.
Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.
In the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.
Story Locale: Galapagos and New York CityBio
JODI PICOULT is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-seven novels, including The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Picoult lives in New Hampshire.
Author Residence: Hanover, NH
Author Hometown: Nesconset, NYMarketing & Promotion
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Author Website: www.jodipicoult.com
Author Social Media: Facebook, Spotify: Jodi Picoult; Twitter, Instagram: @jodipicoult -
Awards & Reviews
Awards
Reviews
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“[M]eticulously researched…. Beautiful lagoons hide riptides, spectacular volcanic vistas conceal deep pits—and penguins bite!…[Picoult has a] penchant for grounding every fictional scenario in thoroughly documented fact…. Between lurid scenes of plague and paradise, whiplash may ensue.” —Kirkus Reviews
“[A] satisfying blend of those familiar Picoult elements, all operating at their best…. [A] smart and emotional page-turner that makes space for individual life crises in the face of a global one.” —Irish Times
“Jodi Picoult once again proves she is the master of wading through the darkness to find the light.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising
“Wish You Were Here is a transporting and transcendent novel about seeking out glimmers of light in the darkness, and following them wherever they lead. Jodi Picoult is that rare, one-in-a-million writer whose books both squeeze your heart and expand your mind. Her latest is wise, surprising, and utterly extraordinary.” —Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read
“A must read…. Wish You Were Here is a deeply emotional novel that captures the beauty of the Galápagos juxtaposed with the terror and panic we all felt in the beginning of the pandemic.” —POPSUGAR
“Jodi Picoult’s latest novel explores a plight shared by millions across the world, whose lives were upended by the pandemic. Diana’s journey towards self-discovery makes for a story that exudes hope, wisdom and understanding.” —Telegraph India
“[In] Wish You Were Here, [Picoult] uses her excellent character writing skills and days of research and interview material to compel readers to relive the relatable confusion and chaos of early lockdown through the lens of two lovers separated by travel restrictions.” —BookTrib
“Wish You Were Here doesn’t shy away from the devastation of COVID-19—but it’s simply the springboard, born out of Picoult’s enforced isolation, for a tale of self-discovery…. [A] satisfying and thought-provoking narrative.” —Star Tribune
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Mayflies A Novel9780771068119 Paperback FICTION / Coming of Age On Sale Date:May 17, 2022$19.95 CAD 5.2 x 8 x 0.73 in | 0.51 lb | 288 pages Carton Quantity:24 McClelland & Stewart-
Marketing Copy
Description
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Book Prize
An unforgettable coming-of-age novel that becomes a profound mediation on life, death, and lifelong friendship.
Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life.
In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently.
Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news—news that forces the life-long friends to confront their own mortality head-on. What follows is an incredibly moving examination of the responsibilities and obligations we have to those we love. Mayflies is at once a finely-tuned drama about the delicacy and impermanence of human connection and an urgent inquiry into some of the most important questions of all: Who are we? What do we owe to our friends? And what does it mean to love another person amidst tragedy?Bio
ANDREW O’HAGAN is Editor-at-Large of the London Review of Books. He has been nominated for the Booker Prize and was voted one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. O’Hagan has won the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Author Hometown: Ayrshire, ScotlandMarketing & Promotion
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Author Website: andrewohagan.com/
Author Social Media: Instagram: @andrewohaganauthor -
Awards & Reviews
Awards
Reviews
“A beautiful ode to lost youth and male friendship written by one of our sharpest observers of modern masculinity.” —Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain
“Mayflies is one of those novels to press into the hands of friends. Beautifully written—wise, funny, poetic, alert to time, place and the ordinary human…I adored this book.” —Carol Ann Duffy
“(…) tender, heartfelt” —The New York Times, New & Noteworthy
“Mayflies is entirely unexpected; a joyful, warm and heart-filling tribute to the million-petalled flower of male friendship. This book will last beyond these feverish times: it’s not just a reminder that culture makes the worst things bearable, but a beautiful example of it in action.” —The Times
“A rare thing: a life-enhancing novel about death. It will stay with you and you will want to read it again.” —Scotsman
“Life-loving and elegiac.” ―Observer
“A delightful nostalgia trip of enduring teenage friendship…an affecting and evocative picture of an era and a relationship.” ―Daily Telegraph
“O’Hagan has written a tight, delicate and soulful novel…about the power of enduring friendship.” ―Sunday Times
“An assured and self-contained piece of theatre, in which love of many kinds is tested, Mayflies is rich in allusions, gracefully written, yet vigorous…. This is a book of high artistic ambition, and a reminder, were it needed, of the seriousness that fiction can address…O’Hagan’s achievement is not to flinch from reality, nor to wallow in misery, but to fill the pages with roaring life, right up to the last kick of the ball.” ―The Herald
“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone and read Andrew O’Hagan’s new novel. Mayflies is a lifetime book.” ―The Australian
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What Strange Paradise A Novel9780771050329 Paperback FICTION / Political On Sale Date:June 07, 2022$21.00 CAD 5.14 x 7.93 x 0.75 in | 0.58 lb | 256 pages Carton Quantity:24 McClelland & Stewart-
Marketing Copy
Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE 2021 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
A beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving novel that brings the global refugee crisis down to the level of a child’s eyes, from the widely acclaimed author of American War.
More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another over-filled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives in their homelands. But miraculously, someone has survived the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who is rescued by Vanna. Vanna is a teenage girl, who, despite being native to the island, experiences her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though Vanna and Amir are complete strangers, though they don’t speak a common language, Vanna is determined to do whatever it takes to save the boy.
In alternating chapters, we learn about Amir’s life and how he came to be on the boat, and we follow him and the girl as they make their way toward safety. What Strange Paradise is the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world. But it is also a story of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair—and about the way each of those things can bind us to reality.Bio
OMAR EL AKKAD is an author and a journalist. Born in Cairo, Egypt, he was raised in Doha, Qatar, until he moved to Canada with his family. He has reported from Afghanistan, Guantánomo Bay, and many other locations around the world. His work earned Canada’s National Newspaper Award for Investigative Journalism and the Goff Penny Award for young journalists. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Le Monde, Guernica, GQ, and many other newspapers and magazines. His debut novel, American War, is an international bestseller and has been translated into thirteen languages. It won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, the Oregon Book Award for fiction, and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and has been nominated for more than ten other awards. It was listed as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, the Washington Post, GQ, NPR, and Esquire, and was selected by the BBC as one of the 100 Novels That Shaped Our World.
Author Residence: Portland, ORMarketing & Promotion
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Author Website: omarelakkad.com
Author Social Media: Twitter: @omarelakkad -
Awards & Reviews
Awards
Scotiabank Giller Prize 2021, Winner
Reviews
Winner of the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize
“[What Strange Paradise] is so gripping a page-turner that its brutal message feels organic and never lecture-ish. Through wisdom imparted by various characters, the reader receives new perspectives; the privileged Western reader in particular is confronted with him-or herself in an uncomfortable way.” —Globe and Mail
“Extraordinary…. Told from the point of view of two children, on the ground and at sea, the story so astutely unpacks the us-versus-them dynamics of our divided world that it deserves to be an instant classic. I haven’t loved a book this much in a long time.” —New York Times Book Review
“Riveting…. Nothing I’ve read before has given me such a visceral sense of the grisly predicament confronted by millions of people expelled from their homes by conflict and climate change. Though What Strange Paradise celebrates a few radical acts of compassion, it does so only by placing those moments of moral courage against a vast ocean of cruelty.” —Washington Post
“El Akkad’s biggest accomplishment with What Strange Paradise is that it manages to push past political talking points and shocking statistics to rehumanize the discussion about migration on a global scale, and it does so with enough heart to be memorable.” — NPR
“What Strange Paradise is by turns tender and brutal in its truths. It is tremendously written, propulsive as it is expansive as it is granular in its specificities. Omar El Akkad writes with such emotional precision, power, and grace. Here we get the wondrousness of children set in sharp relief against a backdrop of the all too common dehumanization then dismissal of refugees everywhere. The book devastates and uplifts, somehow, and we are not left with hope—that isn’t the point—but asked to witness, to see what is here, with clarity, and with fullness of heart.”
—Tommy Orange, author of There There
“What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad just resuscitated my heart. This novel—following a boy who survives a refugee passage, and a girl whose homeland feels fractured—dares to unite us on the shore of shared human experience, and redefines hope in the face of despair. I want to read this book every single day. I want to live in a world where the beauty of strangers is a heartsong.”
—Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Verge
“It is one thing to put a human face on a migrant crisis and another to do so in so compelling a way that a reader simply cannot put your book down. I read this in one sitting, my heart pounding the whole way—in a strange paradise, you might say. Marvelous.”
—Gish Jen, author of The Resisters
“What an imaginative, touching, and necessary novel Omar El Akkad has brought to us. It reminds us of the human stories behind headlines and statistics, and gives us one of the most memorable children characters, whose story adds urgency and poignancy to that ‘awfully big adventure’ stated by Peter Pan.”
—Yiyun Li, author of Must I Go
“Impassioned and richly detailed, What Strange Paradise moves like a thriller and punches like a work of art. With this haunting story of refugees, high seas, sharks and Samaritans, Omar El Akkad continues on his impressive exploration of our contemporary world.”
—Aravind Adiga, author of The White Tiger and Amnesty
“Great literature about migration should rehumanize the discourse surrounding it. What Strange Paradise does a fantastic job of that. Touching, gritty, and told in a unique voice that places childhood at the center of the discussion, this is a tender, haunting work about refugees everyone should read.”
—NPR, “July Book-Ahead: What We’re Excited to Read Next Month”
“Searing, lyrical…A beguiling parable of dispossessed peoples and the burning desire for home.”
—Oprah Daily, “18 of the Best Books to Pick Up This July”
“El Akkad…expertly contrasts the well-paced story of Amir’s predicament with the ill-fated voyage that brought him to Greece. The ragtag bunch of strangers on the boat forms an incredibly well-drawn portrait of humanity as everyone bonds together initially, even with dollops of humor thrown in…A suspenseful and heartbreaking painting of the refugee crisis as experienced by two children caught in the crosshairs.” —Booklist, starred
“El Akkad’s compelling, poetic prose captures the precarity and desperation of people pushed to the brink…A compassionate snapshot of one Syrian refugee’s struggle to plot a course for home.” —Kirkus Reviews
“…What Strange Paradise succeeds at what one senses might be El Akkad’s goal — to deepen our engagement with the world around us and with others’ stories.” – Toronto Star
“This extraordinary book carries a message, not of a trite and clichéd hope, but of a greater universal humanism, the terrifying idea that, ultimately, there are no special distinctions among us, that in fact we are all very much in the same boat.” – New York Times
“Indeed, [What Strange Paradise] is simple in the way that novels like The Stranger or Of Mice and Men are: brief, taut, coolly delivered but with seas of emotion swirling beneath.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“El Akkad may have written a bleak fantasy story, but it’s deeply rooted in the visceral, real-life horrors of the ongoing refugee crisis and it’s hard to think of more capable and talented hands to tackle the brutality and humanity of Amir’s plight.” — Interview
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Hummingbird Salamander A Novel9780771094897 Paperback FICTION / Dystopian On Sale Date:June 21, 2022$22.00 CAD 5.02 x 7.47 x 1.05 in | 0.64 lb | 384 pages Carton Quantity:24 McClelland & Stewart-
Marketing Copy
Description
A brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the end of all things, from the author of Annihilation.
Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.
Soon, Jane and her family are in danger, with few allies to help her make sense of the true scope of the peril. Is the only way to safety to follow in Silvina’s footsteps? Is it too late to stop? As she desperately seeks answers about why Silvina contacted her, time is running out—for her and possibly for the world.
Hummingbird Salamander is Jeff VanderMeer at his brilliant, cinematic best, wrapping profound questions about climate change, identity, and the world we live in into a tightly plotted thriller full of unexpected twists and elaborate conspiracy.Bio
JEFF VANDERMEER is the author of Dead Astronauts, Borne, and The Southern Reach Trilogy, the first volume of which, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award and was adapted into a movie by Alex Garland starring Natalie Portman. VanderMeer speaks and writes frequently about issues relating to climate change. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, and their cats, plants, and bird feeders.
Author Residence: Tallahassee, FloridaMarketing & Promotion
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Author Website: jeffvandermeer.com
Author Social Media: @jeffvandermeer -
Awards & Reviews
Awards
Reviews
“Hummingbird Salamander is harrowing, gripping, and profound. It’s both a thriller and a requiem for a disappearing world. I expect this novel to haunt me for a long time.” —Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel
“A strange, seductive eco-thriller ripe for our era.” —Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic
“This is an astonishing book, topical and madly compelling. A timely, unsettling novel of obsession and descent—a thriller equal parts ecological and psychological, whose puzzle warns of a natural world on the edge of ruination. There’s an urgency to it, but it’s not preachy. VanderMeer shines in revealing our current dystopia.” —Chuck Wendig, bestselling author of Wanderers
“Hummingbird Salamander is a profound and incendiary thriller hurtling backward from the end of the world. Jeff VanderMeer’s tale of ecological and personal obsession inhabits that strange, surreal space where the natural world and human ambition collide—a space almost no other writer has chronicled with as much reverence and imaginative lucidity. The result is a detective story unlike any I’ve read before, futuristic in bearing but deeply relevant to this present, dangerous moment.” —Omar El Akkad, award-winning journalist and author of American War
“Jeff VanderMeer’s Hummingbird Salamander is an existential mindfuck cleverly disguised as a thriller. Though the plot never stops rocketing forward, this astonishing novel continually shifts and expands in scale, until the puzzle the narrator is tasked with solving at the outset becomes an almost Matrix-like invitation to open herself up to a new and shattering understanding of her world, and ours. Visionary, dark, beautiful, and strange, Hummingbird Salamander is that rare novel that coaxes you into imagining the unimaginable.” —Kristen Roupenian, author of You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories
“This gripping eco-thriller pulls readers into a world of danger, mystery, and obsession. Surprising, suspenseful, and compelling, Hummingbird Salamander is in turns insidious and explosive, heartrending and beautiful. Riveting.” —Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winning author of the UNSUB series
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All In An Autobiography9781039002180 Paperback BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs On Sale Date:April 25, 2023$26.00 CAD 5.18 x 8.07 x 1.12 in | 1.1 lb | 528 pages Carton Quantity:24 Vintage Canada-
Marketing Copy
Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
An inspiring and intimate self-portrait of the champion of equality that encompasses her brilliant tennis career, unwavering activism, and an ongoing commitment to fairness and social justice.
In this spirited account, Billie Jean King details her life’s journey to find her true self. She recounts her groundbreaking tennis career—six years as the top-ranked woman in the world, twenty Wimbledon championships, thirty-nine grand-slam titles, and her watershed defeat of Bobby Riggs in the famous “Battle of the Sexes.” She poignantly recalls the cultural backdrop of those years and the profound impact on her worldview from the women’s movement, the assassinations and anti-war protests of the 1960s, the civil rights movement, and, eventually, the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
She describes the myriad challenges she’s hurdled on her path to publicly and unequivocally acknowledging her sexual identity at the age of fifty-one. And she talks about how her life today remains one of indefatigable service. She offers insights and advice on leadership, business, activism, sports, politics, marriage equality, parenting, sexuality, and love. Hers is the story of a pathbreaking feminist, a world-class athlete, and an indomitable spirit whose impact has transcended even her spectacular achievements in sports.Bio
BILLIE JEAN KING is the first female athlete to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is the founder of the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative, the Women’s Tennis Association, and the Women’s Sports Foundation; she co-founded World Team Tennis; and she is part of the ownership group of the Los Angeles Dodgers. She was one of Life magazine’s “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century,” and in 2018 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. She is an Adidas Global Ambassador, a past member of the board of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and a past member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. She lives in New York.
Author Residence: New York, NY
Author Hometown: Long Beach, CAMarketing & Promotion
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Author Website: www.billiejeanking.com
Author Social Media: Facebook.com/billiejeanking, Twitter @billiejeanking, Instagram @billiejeanking -
Awards & Reviews
Awards
Reviews
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Vivid throughout is King’s passion for the game…and her obsessive will to win. She also fervidly speaks on contemporary issues from trans rights—calling out the Women’s Tennis Association for its insensitive treatment of such players as Renée Richards—to gun control…. The result is a lively and inspiring portrait of pressure-cooker play and political upheaval in tennis, from one of its most fascinating figures.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“All In is a must-read about an authentic American hero, and one of the twentieth century’s most consequential figures in the fight for gender equality and human rights.” —Brenda Barrera, Booklist (starred review)
“A tennis legend tells all. In a candid, vividly detailed memoir…King (b. 1943) recounts her dazzling 30-year career, from her discovery of tennis when she was 10 to her amazing fame as the top player in the U.S., winner of 39 Grand Slam and 20 Wimbledon titles.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A constant role model in my life, Billie Jean King is a leading example of integrity in the face of adversity. The book’s powerfully honest and unapologetic candor is a reflection of King’s brilliant mark on the world and the glass ceilings she shattered. It’s a story about the personal strength, immense growth, and undeniable greatness of one woman who fearlessly stood up to a culture trying to break her down.” —Serena Williams
“What a glorious autobiography in every way. Inspiring, emotional, gripping, heartbreaking, brave and maybe most of all, authentic, Billie Jean King writes with verve, insight, and tremendous wit. This is the story of a remarkable athlete and how she has changed our nation for the better. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.” —Harlan Coben
“All In is the remarkable story of a true legend who came from humble beginnings, and went on to change the world. Billie Jean King is a champion in every sense, just as much a hero behind the scenes as she is before her massive crowds. Her powerful memoir is a compelling must read. Masterfully done, this book is for everyone.” —Patricia Cornwell
“Billie Jean King’s grit and conviction burst off every page of this marvelously realized autobiography. Whether it was as a fierce tennis competitor or as a committed social activist, her story reminds us of what one person can do when she is honest and dedicated. Her authenticity was never in question. Her achievements were memorable and her impact long-lasting.” —Bill Bradley, author of Life on the Run
“The most important sports figure of our time has finally gotten the rich and readable biography she—and we—have long deserved. It’s an ace.” —Robert Lipsyte, author of The Contender
“Billie Jean King is the most important woman to ever play sports. She has fought for opportunity, equality and inclusion every day of her adult life. She matters in a way very few athletes ever have. Her riveting autobiography is not only the honest portrayal of the life of a sports legend, it’s a piece of history. Every girl and woman—for that matter, every boy and man—owes Billie Jean King a debt of gratitude. Her impact on our culture has been enormous and, thankfully, continues to this day.” —Christine Brennan, USA Today
“A compelling narrator…. It’s hard not to read this book as a call to arms…but it’s also plenty personal…. King’s book arrives with the same exquisite timing that has defined her style of play as well as her life…. All In reads as a manifesto, like Letters to a Young Poet with a heavy dash of bell hooks. …Her book is a powerful rallying cry, in a life full of them, for how she hopes we play the game after she’s gone.” —The New York Times
“Billie Jean King has come not just a long way, but incalculably far. And now we know the contours of her journey. She is a national treasure and, in this smartly written and compulsively engaging memoir, we grasp how and why. By turns informative, entertaining, and downright fun, All In traces the arc of an extraordinary woman and her extraordinary impact.” —Jon Wertheim, author of Glory Days
“I love this book. This is more than an autobiography—it’s a manual for how to love yourself for who you are. Brutally honest and vulnerable at every level, here’s the real Billie Jean King, champion of equality. When she was little, the world she wanted didn’t exist. So she built it—and best of all, she’s still building it. Athletes fight for trophies; legends fight for others. You’ll see. All In hits home.” —Brad Meltzer, author of I am Billie Jean King
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9780735279933 Paperback BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women On Sale Date:July 26, 2022$21.00 CAD 5.18 x 8 x 0.83 in | 0.6 lb | 328 pages Carton Quantity:24 Vintage Canada-
Marketing Copy
Description
A page-turning memoir about a young woman’s grueling, revelatory summers working alone in a remote lookout tower and her eyewitness account of the increasingly unpredictable nature of wildfire in the Canadian north.
While growing up in Peace River, Alberta, Trina Moyles heard many stories of Lookout Observers—strange, eccentric types who spent five-month summers alone, climbing 100-foot high towers and watching for signs of fire in the surrounding boreal forest. But Moyles never thought she could do that.
Craving a deeper sense of purpose, she left northern Alberta to pursue a decade-long career in global humanitarian work. After three years in East Africa, and newly engaged, Trina returned to Peace River with a plan to sponsor her fiance, Akello’s, immigration to Canada. Despite her fear of being alone in the woods, she applied for a seasonal lookout position and got the job.
Thus began Trina’s first summer as one of a handful of lookouts scattered throughout Alberta, with only a farm dog, Holly, to keep her company. While searching for smoke, Trina unravels under the pressure of a long-distance relationship—and a dawning awareness of the environmental crisis that climate change is producing in the boreal.
Through megafires, lightning storms, and stunning encounters with wildlife, she learns to survive at the fire tower by forging deep connections with nature and with an extraordinary community of people dedicated to wildfire detection and combat. In isolation, she discovers a kind of self-awareness—and freedom—that only solitude can deliver. Lookout is a riveting story of loss, transformation, and belonging to oneself, layered with an eyewitness account of the destructive and regenerative power of wildfire in our northern forests.
Story Locale: Boreal ForestBio
TRINA MOYLES is a writer, photographer, potter, and seasonal smoke spotter in the northern boreal. She is the author of Women Who Dig: Farming, Feminism, and the Fight to Feed the World. Her award-winning writing has been published in The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Alberta Views, Maisonneuve, Hakai Magazine, and many other publications. She lives, writes, and adventures in northwestern Alberta with her canine sidekick, Holly.
Author Residence: Peace River, Alberta
Author Hometown: Peace River, AlbertaMarketing & Promotion
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Author Website: trinamoyles.com
Author Social Media: Twitter: @trinamoyles Instagram: @womenwhodig -
Awards & Reviews
Awards
Reviews
WINNER OF THE ALBERTA LITERARY AWARD FOR MEMOIR
WINNER OF THE 2021 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARDS IN THE OUTDOOR LITERATURE CATEGORY
FINALIST FOR THE ROBERT KROETSCH CITY OF EDMONTON BOOK PRIZE
“Moyles tells a totally engrossing story of fear and love, self-recrimination and healing, by turns vivid with memory and presence. Page after page, I felt immersed in the rejuvenating wonders of the natural world, rendered here in all their magnificent, everchanging detail. Reader, you will roar through this book.” ―Charlotte Gill, author of Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe
“Trina Moyles has written a beautiful, closely observed love letter to the boreal forest and the wilderness of northern Canada at a time when it is threatened by unprecedented change. But Lookout is more than that: it’s also a powerful, unforgettable story about the ways that solitude in nature can break us down, and then put us back together again.” ―Eva Holland, author of Nerve: A Personal Journey Through the Science of Fear
“A vital and howling missive of a book. Lookout holds the wide wisdom and fierce beauty of the boreal forest it depicts. Trina Moyles has spent several seasons sitting in the fire, looking into the heat of love, death and regenerated life; experiencing solitude as intensifying tincture. She writes as a wild and erudite witness, bursting with hunger and feral passion for the living world.” —Kyo Maclear, author of Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation
“Trina Moyles is a natural storyteller. As a novice fire lookout, she retreats into the bush, her heart and self-trust broken, and becomes the sort of woman who shoots a bear in the butt with a rubber bullet then bakes a peach cobbler, all while a record-breaking wildfire rages toward her. Lookout is courageous, vulnerable, funny and enthralling. Above all else, it imparts a much-needed message of hope and regeneration.” —Jan Redford, author of End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood
“With effortless prose, Trina Moyles proves herself a deft observer of both the fires in the distance, and the desires, dreams and doubts she holds close. Moyles’ voluntary solitude will make her readers somehow feel less alone. Lookout is a marvel.” —Marcello Di Cintio, author of Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Life in Contemporary Palestine
“In her engrossing—at times raw—memoir, Moyles elegantly unfurls an unanticipated personal evolution…. [Lookout] can feel novelistic in its combination of evocative descriptions of jaw-dropping nature and Jack London-esque touches.” —The Globe and Mail
“Crossing between countries and seasons, navigating years and relationships, and venturing in and out of the vast Canadian boreal forest along a network of fire towers, Trina Moyles’ Lookout weaves together the story of one woman’s becoming. As she struggles to overcome PTSD and heartbreak and return to herself in the remote Alberta wilderness of her childhood, Moyles comes to realize that the journey to the fire tower is less a groundless flight and more a homecoming, both to the land and to herself. Far from a story of vanishing into the bush in order to disappear, Lookout chronicles Moyles’ emergent awareness of the profound links between those who strive to keep the forests and the surrounding towns and cities safe, and the vast ecosystems in which they work. It’s a wry, generous, and grounded narrative that shows how it’s possible to regenerate a sense of self after profound loss. Moyles, like her beloved boreal forest, rebounds with resilient grace.” —Jenna Butler, author of Revery: A Year of Bees and A Profession of Hope: Farming on the Edge of the Grizzly Trail
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9780735282070 Paperback FICTION / Family Life On Sale Date:July 26, 2022$21.00 CAD 5.21 x 8.01 x 0.89 in | 0.62 lb | 344 pages Carton Quantity:24 Vintage Canada-
Marketing Copy
Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A thrilling psychological drama from Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Linden MacIntrye, weaving threads of crime, disability and dementia together into a tale of unrequited love and delusion.
Two old university friends get together for a weekend of golfing: worldly and rich Allan, once a football hero, and his quieter lawyer friend, nicknamed Byron, lame from a childhood injury, who never left home and has spent years caring for a mother with Alzheimer’s.
During a long night of drinking, the fault lines between them start to show. One of the biggest: the two men married sisters, though Allan was the one who walked down the aisle with Peggy, the sister both of them loved, and Byron settled for Annie.
Out on the course the next morning, Allan suffers a stroke. In one traumatic moment, he loses control of his life, his wife and his business empire, which turns out to have been built on lies and the illegal drug trade. And Byron has to suddenly confront his own weaknesses and strengths, his tangled relationship with Allan and the Winter sisters—both the one he married and the one he thought was the love of his life. No one will anticipate the lengths to which Byron will go to make sense of his life.
Story Locale: Toronto, Atlantic Canada, the United StatesBio
LINDEN MacINTYRE is the bestselling author of many award-winning books, including The Long Stretch, Causeway: A Passage from Innocence, The Bishop’s Man, Why Men Lie, Punishment, The Only Cafe, and The Wake. A distinguished broadcast journalist, MacIntyre, who was born in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and grew up in Port Hastings, Cape Breton, spent twenty-four years as the co-host of the fifth estate. He has won ten Gemini awards for his work. MacIntyre lives in Toronto with his wife, broadcast journalist and author Carol Off. They spend their summers in a Cape Breton village by the sea.
Author Residence: Toronto
Author Hometown: Cape BretonMarketing & Promotion
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Awards & Reviews
Awards
Reviews
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Like all the other characters in this novel, the reader is also drawn into the wake of the enigmatic, Gatsby-like Allan Chase. Poignant, funny, at times shocking, The Winter Wives is a story about the hazards of memory, with a cracking great mystery at its heart.” —Gil Adamson, author of The Ridgerunner and The Outlander
“The Winter Wives tells a deceptively quiet story about friendship and secrets, which gradually reveals itself to be a gorgeous meditation on whether we can ever truly know the people we’ve loved the longest and the most.” —Lynn Coady, author of Watching You Without Me and Hellgoing
“Taut and absorbing, The Winter Wives is a layered story of love, deceit, friendship and identity. It is also a new kind of thriller, where dementia raises its head, and memory itself becomes a sly antagonist. Byron must navigate not only life-long romance and betrayal—but the hard knot that is his own complex mind. An elegant and fascinating book.” —Shaena Lambert, author of Petra and Radiance
“Longtime journalist MacIntyre…writes with an easy command of both the external world…and the internal world of complex and frequently conflicted characters…. The Winter Wives [is] a powerful, thought-provoking read.” —Toronto Star
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Em Kim Thúy
, Sheila Fischman
9781039000858 Paperback FICTION / War & Military On Sale Date:August 30, 2022$21.00 CAD 5.2 x 7.99 x 0.45 in | 0.32 lb | 160 pages Carton Quantity:24 Vintage Canada-
Marketing Copy
Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
NOMINATED FOR THE 2021 GRAND PRIX DU LIVRE DE MONTRÉAL
SHEILA FISCHMAN SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 COLE FOUNDATION PRIZE FOR TRANSLATION
Kim Thúy’s Em is a virtuosic novel of profound power and sensitivity, and an enduring affirmation of the greatest act of resistance: love.
In the midst of war, an ordinary miracle: an abandoned baby tenderly cared for by a young boy living on the streets of Saigon. The boy is Louis, the child of a long-gone American soldier. Louis calls the baby em Hồng, em meaning “little sister,” or “beloved.” Even though her cradle is nothing more than a cardboard box, em Hồng’s life holds every possibility.
Through the linked destinies of a family of characters, the novel takes its inspiration from historical events, from Operation Babylift, which evacuated thousands of biracial orphans from Saigon in April 1975, to the remarkable growth of the nail salon industry, dominated by Vietnamese expatriates all over the world. From the rubber plantations of Indochina to the massacre at My Lai, Kim Thúy sifts through the layers of pain and trauma in stories we thought we knew, revealing transcendent moments of grace, and the invincibility of the human spirit.
Story Locale: Saigon, My Lai, Guam, Savannah, Montreal, etc.Bio
Born in Saigon in 1968, KIM THÚY left Vietnam with the boat people at the age of ten and settled with her family in Quebec. A graduate in translation and law, she has worked as a seamstress, interpreter, lawyer, restaurant owner, media personality, and television host. She has received many awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2010, and was one of the top 4 finalists of the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2018. Her books have sold more than 850,000 copies around the world and have been translated into 29 languages and distributed across 40 countries and territories. She lives in Montreal and devotes herself to writing.
SHEILA FISCHMAN is the award-winning translator of some 200 contemporary novels from Quebec. In 2008 she was awarded the Molson Prize in the Arts. She is a Member of the Order of Canada and a chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec. She lives in Montreal.
Author Residence: Longueuil, Quebec
Author Hometown: Saigon, VietnamMarketing & Promotion
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Author Website: www.kimthuy.ca
Author Social Media: FB: facebook.com/kimthuyauteure/ | Twitter: @KimThuyOfficiel | Insta: kimthuylythanh -
Awards & Reviews
Awards
Grand Prix du livre de Montreal 2021, Nominated
Scotiabank Giller Prize 2021, Long-listed
Reviews
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
NOMINEE FOR THE 2021 GRAND PRIX DU LIVRE MONTREAL
SHEILA FISCHMAN SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 COLE FOUNDATION PRIZE FOR TRANSLATION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 SCOTT MONCRIEF PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
“Expertly handled by her long-time translator, Sheila Fischman, the text juxtaposes horror and beauty to lasting effect. The prose is poised and elegant even when describing atrocity…. This is Thúy’s most ambitious and affecting book yet. Both sprawling and intimate, Em amplifies her storytelling and is a moving memorial to survivors and those who perished alike.” —Quill & Quire, starred review
“A work of visual and literary art at once…. A brief, moving meditation on the nature of truth, memory, humanity, and violence: a powerful work of art.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Em may be [Kim Thúy’s] finest yet. More assured in her writing and less concerned about blurring the boundary between factual and fictional truth, Thúy is mesmerizing in this tale." —Maclean’s
“Just like tender, strong and graceful Vietnamese silk threads, Kim Thúy masterfully weaves us through Vietnam’s twentieth-century history while binding us to the lives of its people so that their experiences expand our worldview. Em is an original, innovative, poetic and haunting novel that deserves to be read, shared, studied and discussed.” —Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of The Mountains Sing
“Kim Thúy seals words into packets, plain and firm as an encyclopedia entry; shimmery and taut as an ode; pitted and unbendable as a curse, lays them edge to corner to end to say, do you see it now? Do you?” —Hartford Public Library, for the Dublin Literary Award
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Not on My Watch How a renegade whale biologist took on governments and industry to save wild salmon Alexandra Morton
9780735279681 Paperback BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Environmentalists & Naturalists On Sale Date:September 06, 2022$22.00 CAD 5.25 x 7.99 x 1 in | 0.78 lb | 384 pages Carton Quantity:24 Canadian Rights: Y Vintage Canada-
Marketing Copy
Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Alexandra Morton has been called “the Jane Goodall of Canada” because of her passionate thirty-year fight to save British Columbia’s wild salmon. Her account of that fight is both inspiring in its own right and a roadmap of resistance.
Alexandra Morton came north from California in the early 1980s, following her first love—the northern resident orca. Then, in 1989, industrial aquaculture moved into the region, chasing the whales away. Soon Alex had shifted her scientific focus to documenting the infectious diseases and parasites that pour from the ocean farm pens of Atlantic salmon into the migration routes of wild Pacific salmon, and then to proving their disastrous impact on wild salmon and the entire ecosystem of the coast.
Alex stood against the farms, first representing her community, then alone, and at last as part of an uprising in which ancient Indigenous governance resisted a province and a country that wouldn’t obey their own court rulings. She has used her science, many acts of protest and the legal system in her unrelenting efforts to save wild salmon and ultimately the whales—a story that reveals her own perseverance and bravery, but also shines a bright light on the ways other humans doggedly resist the truth. Here, she brilliantly calls those humans to account for the sake of us all.
Story Locale: Vancouver, British ColumbiaBio
ALEXANDRA MORTON is a field biologist turned activist who has done groundbreaking research on the damaging impact of ocean-based salmon farming on the coast of British Columbia. She first studied communications in bottlenosed dolphins and then the sounds of captive orcas at Marineland of the Pacific in California. She then moved to the remote BC coast and found herself at the heart of a long fight to protect the wild salmon that are the province’s keystone species. She has co-authored more than twenty scientific papers on the impact of salmon farming on migratory salmon, founded the Salmon Coast Research Station, has been featured on 60 Minutes, and has been key to many legal and protest actions against the industry, including the recent First Nations-led occupation of salmon farms on the Broughton.
Author Residence: Sointula and Echo Bay, BC
Author Hometown: ConnecticutMarketing & Promotion
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Feature Website: raincoastresearch.com
Author Website: alexandramorton.ca
Author Social Media: Twitter: @alex4salmon -
Awards & Reviews
Awards
Reviews
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Morton’s book is a record of impassioned, long-term commitment and self-sacrifice…. We’ve been within a whisper of losing our wild salmon populations—as well as the endangered livelihoods of the mostly small-town and Indigenous wild salmon fleet families—if not for the work of this remarkable campaigner and researcher…. A modern day Joan of Arc story: her example of fighting for environmental, social, community, and multicultural justice deserves being taught to every B.C. student.” —2022 George Ryga Award judges
“[O]ne of the most important reads to come out of B.C., if not the country, this year…. It’s a story that’s heartbreaking, infuriating, shocking, suspenseful, and inspiring. And it’s a tale that continues to unfold.” —Stir
“[Not on My Watch] doesn’t read as an angry polemic. Rather, it’s an outline of a life spent standing up for something.” —Dana Gee, Vancouver Sun
“Alex Morton’s Not on My Watch, like Silent Spring, should touch off a national debate about rights and obligations, and while we’re at it, about decolonization. If Not on My Watch needs to be peer reviewed, those peers should include ordinary people with a thirst for justice and common sense. And every politician should be judged by their reaction to this book.” —The Tyee
“This is an important book filled with cautionary tales for anyone who cares about the environment. It is also a moving and well written human story. Highly recommended.” —Tom Sandborn, Vancouver Sun
“A devastating literary exposé of one of the greatest scandals of recent Canadian history. What begins as a wholly human memoir of a reluctant activist takes on the urgency of a murder thriller—one in which the victims are wild salmon, coastal communities, science and democracy.” —J.B. MacKinnon, author of The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
“How does a scientist and mother fight both foreign-owned fish farm cartels and lying governments? Alexandra Morton provides a thrilling recipe: a wallop of persistence, three decades of science, cups of stubbornness and the salt of undaunted courage. If the Pacific Northwest Coast’s wild salmon can survive our industrial assault on their very existence, credit must go to the indomitable courage of Alex Morton and a brave renaissance in First Nations governance.” —Andrew Nikiforuk, author of Empire of Beetle and Slickwater
“Not on My Watch is an urgent, essential read for anyone who cares about the rapidly dwindling wild salmon population of British Columbia. Meticulous, penetrating and passionate, Morton’s thorough exploration of the history and effect of placing an industrial zone in prime wild salmon habitat is chilling and infuriating.” —Eden Robinson, author of the Trickster Trilogy
“If ever there was a Mother Teresa for the voiceless inhabitants of the rivers of Pacific Canada, for the salmon and orca whales and small-scale fishers and others, that unstoppable voice has been Alexandra Morton’s. Grounded in science, rooted in a just cause, driven to find answers that come only with painstaking work—and most importantly, right all along—Alexandra Morton endured decades of harassment, lies and threats by people who profit from destroying ages-old sources of life. Her resolute strength through it all will inspire new defenders of wild things and wild places for generations to come. Fundamentally, this is Alexandra Morton’s compelling, sometimes maddening story of unstoppable love.” —Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace, and of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
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9780735281974 Paperback SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change On Sale Date:May 17, 2022$23.00 CAD 5.51 x 8.22 x 0.76 in | 0.65 lb | 296 pages Carton Quantity:24 Canadian Rights: Y Random House Canada-
Marketing Copy
Description
WINNER OF THE SHAUGHNESSY COHEN PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING
From the National Business Book Award winner and GG finalist, a very different book about facing the climate crisis, and what awaits us on the other side.
Chris Turner has reported from the places where the sustainable future first emerged—from green islands in Denmark and green office parks in southern India, to solar panel factories in California and idealistic intentional communities from Scotland to New Mexico. Here, he condenses the first quarter century of the global energy transition into bite-sized chunks of optimistic reflection and reportage, telling a story of a planet in peril and a global effort already beginning to save it. This is a book that moves past the despair and futile anger over ecological collapse and harnesses that passion toward the project of building a twenty-first century quality of life that surpasses the twentieth-century version in every way. How to Be a Climate Optimist overflows with possibility in a moment of great panic, upheaval and uncertainty over a world on fire.Bio
CHRIS TURNER is a three-time nominee and one-time winner of the National Business Book Award, and a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction (The Geography of Hope). He has long been one of Canada’s leading voices on climate change solutions and the global energy transition. His feature writing has earned ten National Magazine Awards, and he is the author of five books on technology, energy and climate. He lives in Calgary with his wife, the author Ashley Bristowe, and their two children.
Author Residence: Calgary, AB
Author Hometown: Toronto, ONMarketing & Promotion
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Awards & Reviews
Awards
Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing 2023, Winner
Reviews
WINNER OF THE SHAUGHNESSY COHEN PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING
“The climate debate is inherently pessimistic, and while Chris Turner doesn’t pretend that crafting policy to slow global warming is easy, he presents a compelling argument: gloom and doom is not an effective strategy. How to Be a Climate Optimist is a self-help guide for the planet and a masterclass in brisk, vivid storytelling. Turner gives us a crisp, upbeat tour d’horizon of gee-whiz innovation coupled with a strongly argued case that we—politicians, voters and citizens—just need the will to reach for the solutions taking shape before our eyes.” —2023 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize Jury
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