Part of the excitement of a new literary season is watching certain books build momentum because of great reviews and blurbs. Here are five of those very books.

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NIGHT OF POWER, BY ANAR ALI

The Buzz:

"An especially important and accomplished story...elegant, complex, but propulsive and strongly cinematic."
—David Chariandy, author of Brother

“Anar Ali’s Night of Power is a searing and beautiful novel. With perfect pitch, the story glides between the perspectives of father, mother, and son. It is an honest and utterly engaging meditation about love and loss, tenderness and violence, adaptability and delusion, dislocation and rebirth.” 
—Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes and The Illegal

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THE RED CHESTERFIELD, BY WAYNE ARTHURSON

The Buzz:

"The mark of any great story is when the reader never wants it to end. Wayne Arthurson's The Red Chesterfield pulled me into an alluring world of magic and mystery, a slow tease of crisp, compelling writing. A ten!
" —Award-winning mystery writer Peggy Blair (who pens the Inspector Ramirez series)

"Part crime novel, part fable, part family drama, The Red Chesterfield is a compelling and inventive story which defies category. Arthurson spins a tale with dry wit and a keen descriptive eye. The Red Chesterfield is a major achievement by an important voice.
 —Sam Wiebe, author of Cut You Down, Invisible Dead, and Last of the Independents

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HONEY, BY BRENDA BROOKS

The Buzz:

“Sinuous and captivating, Honey is a novel about friendship, obsession, and the troubling, even perilous ambiguities behind motivations and desires.” —Foreword Reviews

“Honey shows that the classic noir fatalism you see in writers like David Goodis makes a lot of sense in a contemporary setting as well. With well-drawn characters and Brooks's ability to tease out an obsessiveness that leads to some truly bad decision-making, this is an impactful, spare read.” —Nathan Ripley, author of Find You in the Dark and Your Life Is Mine

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THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU, BY LAUREN CARTER

The Buzz:

"I found it tender and devastating. A deep dive into the trauma created by family secrets—and secret-keeping!" —Sarah Selecky, author of Radiant Shimmering Light and This Cake Is For the Party

"Lauren Carter has created a novel for our times: how do we learn to live in a world filled with tragedy? With compassion as big as her talent, Lauren Carter infuses this epic story of the brokenhearted with love, life, and hope. This Has Nothing to Do with You is an antidote to apathy and despair. I'm an instant fan." —Angie Abdou, 2011 Canada Reads finalist (for The Bone Cage) and whose latest is Home Ice: Reflections of a Reluctant Hockey Mom

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WATCHING YOU WITHOUT ME, BY LYNN COADY

The Buzz:

“Thank God for Lynn Coady’s singular voice and deliciously skewed world view. Every book of hers is an occasion to celebrate!” —Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking
 and many other acclaimed novels

“Watching You Without Me is both a suspenseful, deeply creepy page-turner and a beautifully subtle character study of a grieving woman slowly unravelling while trying to understand how to care for her sister, and herself, in an ableist world. Another masterpiece from the singular Lynn Coady.” —Zoe Whittall, author of The Best Kind of People
, Bottle Rocket Hearts, and Holding Still for as Long as Possible

“With Watching You Without Me, Coady showcases just how smooth her writing is ... Expertly rendered characters, easy reading plot, and excellent pacing.” —Quill & Quire