by nicole | Aug 11, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Botticelli in the Fire won the Governor General’s Award for Drama in 2019. Its author, Toronto playwright Jordan Tannahill, is remarkably clever and to an extent knows his subject. On the surface, the story is potentially compelling. The play is set in...
by nicole | Jul 31, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Hannah Finch is eleven years old. Almost twelve. She is a troubled girl, abused and alone. Her mother is dead. One week before Christmas, she leaves the place she calls home and steps out into a winter storm. Eric Nyland, a retired RCMP officer, on his way to...
by nicole | Jul 13, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Poetry
Three epigraphs open Basma Kavanagh’s Ruba’iyat for the Time of Apricots. The first, from Joy Harjo’s Remember, honours the “mother,” her presence forever evident in her child; the second, from Mahmoud Darwish’s Nothing Pleases Me, questions...
by prfire | Jun 1, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Canada is so vast that Europe could almost fit inside it. With vastness comes variance—from wet climates to dry climates, from “have-not” provinces to “have” provinces. In her second poetry collection, One Thing — Then Another, Claire Kelly explores this...
by prfire | May 13, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Author Lauren Carter doesn’t waste any time drawing you into the complicated, compelling and uncomfortably familiar lives of her characters. From the first page, you’re immersed in the moving landscape of their existence, but you’re not immersed in a way that...
by prfire | Apr 21, 2020 | All Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction
Naming the Shadows, Sharon Berg’s collection of stories, is a fascinating exploration of diverse subjects, from uncovering family secrets and probing social taboos, to examining career choices and overcoming personal trauma. The stories are character driven, and...
