All the fiction you're going to fall in love with in the second half of 2022!

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K.L. Armstrong is back with another gripping thriller, The Life She Had (July), of which bestseller Samantha Armstrong writes, “this relentlessly tense page-turner will spin your mind as you follow the haunting paths to the truth.” A Minor Chorus (September) is the urgent first novel about breaching the prisons we live inside from Billy-Ray Belcourt, one of Canada’s most daring literary talents. From the Arthur Ellis Award–winning Grand Master of Crime Writers Gail Bowen comes What’s Past Is Prologue (September), the newest instalment in the Joanne Kilbourn series. A betrayed middle-aged mother embarks on a quest that takes her straight into B.C.’s wildfires and her ancient Moghul ancestry in Taslim Burkowicz's third novel, Ruby Red Skies (October). And intimate and erotic, Jowita Bydlowska’s second novel, Possessed (October), is a dark and darkly funny story exploring sexual obsession, mental illness, and the supernatural.

Music, fame, and magic weave through Matt Cahill’s mesmerizing and eerie new literary thriller Radioland (October). With themes of resistance, of ceremony as the conduit between realms, of transcending gender, Magodiz (October), by Gabe Calderon, is a powerful and visionary reclamation that Two-Spirit people always have and always will be vital to the cultural and spiritual legacy of their communities. No One Knows About Us (November), by award-winner Bridget Canning, is a collection of short fiction about how we find connection in a disconnected world. And written between 1956 in Montreal, just as Leonard Cohen was publishing his first poetry collection, and 1961, when he’d settled on Greece’s Hydra island, the pieces in A Ballet of Lepers (October) offer startling insight into Cohen’s imagination and creative process.

When Matthew Rice’s life begins to unravel in Shadow Life (August), by Michael Dector, he goes into survivalist mode on Quarry Island in Georgian Bay—will he be able to find what he’s looking for on the island or will he be coaxed into returning to the world? Mukbang (August), by Fanie Demeule, is a grimy, shocking, and darkly funny dive into our relationships with food, self-image, and intimacy. And in “Hammerhead” Jed’s third case, the pro-wrestler PI looks like he might be down for the count while investigating an underground fight circuit in Five Moves of Doom (September), by A.J. Devlin.

In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar priest named Artt has a dream in which God tells him to leave the sinful world behind. With two monks—young Trian and old Cormac—he rows down the River Shannon in Emma Donoghue’s latest novel, Haven (August). Fans of Anne Emery have a new mystery to look forward to—Fenian Street (September), an unsolved murder investigation set in 1970s Ireland. The Animals (October) is a realist novel with the air of a fairy tale from Cary Fagan, exploring the nature of relationships faunal and human, reminding us of the challenges of finding one's place in society… and that living with a wolf is not a very good idea. Two laconic teenage runaways travel back roads, searching for an extraordinary place that may or may not exist in Sara Flemington’s Egg Island (July).

Kevin Marc Fournier's Brief Life (October) is the story of a fraught but lifelong friendship, the chronicle of a small town with a bizarre and tangled history, a multi-generational family saga of ghosts, dreams, visions, and visitations, of strange dogs, secret magic, and mysterious disappearances. Precious Little (October) is an extraordinary literary fiction debut from award-winning writer and activist Camille Fouillard, set in the remote Labrador Innu community of Utshimassits, exploring grief, trauma, unlearning, and healing.

In riveting psychological thriller Blood Atonement (October), the latest from S.M. Freedman, Grace’s healing solitude is shattered when she becomes a suspect in a gruesome series of murders. A sly, intricately plotted thriller about a family jockeying for control of a multibillion-dollar empire, Elyse Friedman’s The Opportunist (December) is both a propulsive, twisty page-turner and a shrewd commentary on the ways of women and men. And from the author of Class Mom and You've Been Volunteered comes Laurie Gelman's next laugh-out-loud novel Smells Like Tween Spirit (July).

When the Sky Comes Looking for You (September) expands upon the Thunder Road trilogy with a series of short stories, both loved and brand new, from acclaimed author Chadwick Ginther. An unflinching, unchronological coming-of-age story told through vivid and mesmerizing vignettes, Katherine Alexandra Harvey’s Quiet Time (September) is one woman’s story of resilience, bravery, and redemption, as she fights for her voice in a world attempting to silence it. In stories about love and fear, Romantic idealism and practical limitations, self-reckoning and how we learn to care for one another, Steven Heighton's Instructions for the Drowning (October) is the unforgettable last collection by a writer working at the height of his powers.

Some Hellish (September), the debut novel by Nicholas Herring, is a story about anguish and salvation, the quiet grace and patience of transformation, the powers of addiction and fear, the plausibility of forgiveness, and the immense capacity of friendship and of love. Motherthing (September), by Ainslie Hogarth, is a darkly funny domestic horror novel about a woman who must take drastic measures to save her husband and herself from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law. And Confessions With Keith (September), an outrageously comic novel by Pauline Holdstock, documents a middle-aged writer and mother's grappling with mid-life crisis—her husband's and her own.

Delving into the most awkward and bewildering time of adolescence, There Are Wolves Here Too (September), by Niall Howell (who was shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize) blends coming of age with elements of noir and horror. Paris Peralta is suspected of killing her celebrity husband, and her long-hidden past now threatens to destroy her future in Things We Do in the Dark (July), a new thriller from Jennifer Hillier. And in A House Without Spirits (September) David Homel delivers a contemporary Montreal noir that reveals how much we learn about ourselves when we begin to ask questions of others.

A story of heartbreak and hope, guilt and redemption, Sins of the Daughter (August), by Carolyn Huizinga Mills, explores the fragility of the bond between mothers and daughters and the domino effect that the choices of one generation have on the next. We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky (August) is a boundary-pushing tale of five young women rebelling against an era that relies on their submission, from Emma Hooper, the acclaimed author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James. John Irving's first novel in seven years is The Last Chairlift (October), what he's calling his last long novel, a family saga of seven decades, reflecting the tensions in our cultural and political landscape. And embroiled in international intrigue and the hunt for a foundling, everyone's favourite 1930s PI is back in Cold Snap (September), the highly anticipated third instalment of Maureen Jennings’ Paradise Café Series.

In the world’s undersea realms, the superpowers are pressing, climate change is ravaging the surface nations, and militaries are surging into the oceans to seek out new resources to sustain their exploding populations in The Shadow of War: The Rise of Oceania, by Timothy S. Johnston. An intergenerational coming-of-age novel, This House Is Not a Home (September), by Katłįà, follows Kǫ̀, a Dene man who grew up entirely on the land before being taken to residential school and finally returns home to struggles to connect with his family. 

The Raw Light of Morning (September), by Shelly Kawaja, is a powerful debut novel about women and children finding humour and love in the aftermath of domestic violence. Chelene Knight’s debut novel, Junie (September), after a poetry collection and the acclaimed memoir Dear Occupant, is a riveting exploration of the complexity within mother-daughter relationships and the dynamic vitality of Vancouver's former Hogan's Alley neighbourhood. And Lambda Literary Award winner Larissa Lai returns with The Lost Century (October), a sprawling historical novel about war, colonialism and queer experience during Japan's occupation of Hong Kong during World War II.

Two women, each named Sara, get into separate rideshares...but only one makes it home alive. S.C. Lalli’s Are You Sara? (August) asks: Which Sara was the real target? Ann Lambert’s latest Russell and Leduc mystery is Whale Fall (September), a riveting tale of love, vengeance, and climate justice. Bestselling author of Autopsy of a Boring Wife Marie-Renée Lavoie makes us fall in love with her characters once again with tender coming-of-age story Some Maintenance Required (July), translated by  Arielle Aaronson. And drawing on his own life experiences, George Lee has fashioned an unforgettable coming-of-age story about fate and faith, good and evil, power of imagination and storytelling, and, above all, wonder of English literature in Dancing in the River (November).

The fiction and poetry of Queer Little Nightmares (October), edited David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli, reimagines monsters old and new through a queer lens, subverting the horror gaze to celebrate ideas and identities canonically feared in monster lit. Fayne (October) is a new novel by Ann-Marie MacDonald, a tale of science, magyk, love and identity. And murder in a quilt shop on scenic Fogo Island leads sardonic private eye Sebastian Synard from his quest for some R&R to a different kind of excursion altogether in Kevin Major's latest mystery, Four for Fogo Island (October).

At the core of the novel Mink Returns to Tkaronto (August), Lee Maracle’s last, is the question “Do the dead regret dying after they reach the after world?” A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat. Bianca Marais’ third novel The Witches of Moonshyne Manor (August), is creating enormous buzz. And The Sugar Thief (July), by Nancy Mauro, is a deliciously comedic family melodrama about an imploding social media star, a small-town Italian bakery, the treachery of fame, and the pink-frosted pastry at the heart of it all.  

When a mudslide strands a train, Baxter, a gay Black sleeping car porter, must contend with the perils of white passengers, ghosts, and his secret love affair in Suzette Mayr's latest, The Sleeping Car Porter (October). From Giller Prize finalist Colin McAdam, Black Dove (September) is a chilling tale of a grieving novelist and his son who fall sway to a twilit world of desperate wanderers, mad geneticists, and noble, dangerous beasts. Steinbeck meets Miriam Toews in Fearnoch (July), by Jim McEwen, an insightful and illuminating debut about the decline of rural Canada and the meaning of community. Erica McKeen’s debut Tear (September) is a reclamation of female rage and a horrifyingly deformed Bildungsroman. And Catherine McKenzie's latest thriller is Please Join Us (August), about a woman who joins an exclusive women's networking group and realizes something sinister is at play.

Magnetic Dogs (October), by Bruce Meyer, is a collection of short stories that examines how displaced individuals—those who have been snatched out of their time and place—struggle to adapt and reinvent themselves in an entirely new context or re-establish themselves in their former situations. The Boy's Marble (September), by Natasha Nuhanovic, tells the story of experiencing a war through the eyes of a child. And Sharp Edges (August), by Leah Mol, is the story of a girl lost in a grown-up world far darker than she could have imagined—searching for someone to guide her to a place where she can be sixteen again.

Lisa Moore selects stories for the anthology Hard Ticket (August), showcasing some of the next generation of Newfoundland's literary trailblazers including Sharon Bala, Bridget Canning, and others. Anna Moschovakis’s Participation (November) offers a prescient look at remote communication in a time of rupture: anonymous participants exchange fantasies and ruminations, and relationships develop and unravel. On the eve of the Second World War outside a village in England, four people rush to an airplane crash and change their lives forever in Pamela Mulloy’s second novel, As Little As Nothing (October). And Lilian Nattel explores the meaning and reach of family bonds in her latest novel, Only Sisters (August).

After losing her young son in a tragic accident, Eve struggles to protect the one child she has left, a teenage daughter who might be pure evil, in Eve’s Rib (September), by C.S. O’Cinneide. A.G. Pasquella’s Welcome to the Weird America (October) brings together three of his brilliant, fabulist novellas, each of which is filled with strange language and extraordinary surprises. And Sarah Priscus’s debut novel is Groupies (July), set in California in 1977, an evocative coming-of-age story and a cutting look at fame, desire, and the media. Award-winner Danny Ramadan's The Foghorn Echoes (August) is a novel about a forbidden love between two boys in war-torn Syria and the fallout that ripples through their adult lives.

Iain Reid’s genre-defying third novel We Spread (September) explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old. Literary legend David Adams Richards follows the epic Miramichi Trilogy with The Tragedy of Eva Mott (October), a startling standalone novel of concentrated power. And from Tanis Rideout, bestselling author of Above All Things, and inspired by real events, The Sea Between Two Shores (September) follows two families brought together to reckon with what it means to make amends—for historic wrongs and the wrongs we commit against the ones we love.

When a troubled father and his estranged teenage daughter head out onto the land in search of the family trap-line, they find their way back to themselves, and to each other in David A. Robertson’s The Theory of Crows (September). The latest from Kelly Robson—whose time travel adventure Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach won the 2019 Aurora Award and was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and Locus Awards—is High Times in Low Parliament (August). And in I Am Claude François and You Are a Bathtub (September), Stuart Ross, a veteran of the Canadian literary underground, unleashes his arsenal of pathos, absurdism, humour, and cantankerousness.

In This Unlikely Soil (September), prize-winning writer Andrea Routley delivers stories of queer women navigating love and life against the lush, isolated backdrop of Canada’s West Coast. Emily Saso’s second novel is Nine Dash Line (September), a thrilling story about two people stranded under mysterious circumstances in the South China Sea, battling the memories of the crimes that haunt them. And Barbara Joan Scott’s The Taste of Hunger (September) is a family saga about Ukrainian immigrants in the early 20th century, the power of desire, Baba Yaga fairy tales, and a moment that changes everything.

Citizens of Light (October), Sam Shelstad’s debut novel set in southern Ontario, captures call-centre life, faded tourist attractions, and suburbia with oddball wit and sharp realism. From the award-winning author Neil Smith, Jones (August) is the harrowing, funny, utterly unforgettable story of a pair of siblings attempting to survive the horror show of their family.Following three generations of Newfoundland women, The Remembering (September) is the highly anticipated debut work of adult fiction from Susan Sinnott, award-winning author of crossover novel Catching the Light. Carrie Snyder is back with Francie’s Got a Gun (July), a suspenseful and poignant tale from an award-winning writer about a girl navigating chaotic family life in a close-knit small town. And out of the explosive 1970s L.A. art scene comes Utopia (August), by Heidi Sopinka, a riveting novel about creativity, death, and reinvention that follows two artists—one dies mysteriously, and the other takes her place

In Because of Nothing At All (September), by Paul Sunga, a team of international health program evaluators near the Kenya-Sudan border are abducted and force-marched under a desert moon, their pasts and presents—and those of their abductors—unravelling before them. Girl, Interrupted meets Rebecca in Pacifique (October), by Sarah L. Taggert, a taut tale of love and madness. And the debut by Saeed Teebi’s—whose “Her First Palestinian” was shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize—is the collection Her First Palestinian (August), stories of Palestinian immigrants in Canada navigating their identities in circumstances that push them to the emotional brink.

Set in Prague and narrated by a 600-year-old bridge, Thomas Trofimuk’s new novel The Elephant on Karluv Bridge (August) begins with an elephant named Sál escaping the Prague Zoo. Jade Is a Twisted Green (September), by Tanya Turton, is a coming-of-age story about Jamaican Canadian identity, love, passion, chosen family and relationships. And We Have Never Lived On Earth (August), by Kasia Van Schaik, captures the feelings and experiences of being a woman: physical and psychological threat, creativity, disappointment, objectification, and desire.