Little Crosses, by Sabrina Reeves

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: House of Anansi Press

What It's About

A daughter examines her complicated relationship with a charismatic, narcissistic mother who now lives with alcohol-related dementia.

When Cassie Wolfe brings her mother, Nina, to the Albuquerque Presbyterian Hospital to be detoxed, the doctors ask her to write a profile of the patient. But how can she fit Nina into a Word document? The last two years have left Cassie stunned, unable to reconcile the shell of a woman lying in the hospital bed with the force of nature that was her mother.

Cassie's memories of Nina span decades and landscapes, from a farmhouse in Massachusetts to the streets of New York and the mountains of New Mexico. Nina was a charismatic iconoclast—an architect and builder who could wield a circular saw as easily as discuss politics art. But as Cassie comes to realize, Nina's brilliant constructions were only possible when she walled off whole sides of herself. Hiding is not unique to Nina—Cassie knows AA is full of just such intelligent, hilarious, powerful women. And when her critical gaze turns to her own life and how she’s raising her two daughters, she sees her mother's influence everywhere. In the end, Nina's devastating descent threatens to pull the family under, and Cassie's constant action is propelled by grief until she realizes that all that remains is to let it go.

What People Say

"By turns uplifting, profound, angry, [Reeves] is never disengaged, never boring … [She] paints images with her words, and her scenes just as frequently soar." —Toronto Star

"Reeves accomplishes the painful task of summarizing a loved one’s life with magnificent details and delicate insights." —Montreal Review of Books

**

What I Know About You, by Eric Chacour (translated by Pablo Strauss)

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Coach House Books

What It's About

A heartbreaking tale of a family and an impossible love, torn apart by secrets and traditions in late-twentieth-century Cairo.

As a boy in 1960s Cairo, Tarek knows that his entire life is written in advance. He’ll be a doctor like his father, marry, and have children. Under the watchful eyes of his mother and his sister, he starts to do just that – until Ali enters his life and turns it upside down. The two men, from very different worlds, embark on an unsayable relationship that threatens to tear apart Tarek’s family.

Years later, as Tarek is living a solitary life in Montreal, someone starts writing about him and to him, piecing together a past he wants only to forget. But who is the writer of this tale? And will he figure it out in time?

A bestseller in its original Quebec edition, and the recipient of several awards, including the Prix Femina des Lycéens, What I Know About You is poised to be an international sensation.

"The slow-burn story of Tarek, a Levantine Christian doctor whose life seems prescribed for him in every matter, even love...Chacour’s exceptional restraint in divulging information lets the tension build, carrying the book into the revelation of who is writing Tarek’s story. All the author’s formal risks result in well-earned rewards." —Kirkus, ★ STARRED Review

"What I Know About You is a cerebral yet emotionally resonant slow burn with an intriguing structure that serves Chacour’s plot extremely well. In any language, this is a devastatingly beautiful story." – Dory Cerny, Quill & Quire, ★ STARRED Review

**

Radio Jet Lag, by Gregor Craigie

Genre: Fiction/Humour

Publisher: Cormorant Books

What It's About

Longlisted for the 2024 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour

Stephen Millburn moved halfway across the country, from Ottawa to Victoria, to fulfill his dream of being an early-morning radio host, but he’s barely holding it together. Trying to balance parental duties (he and his wife have a newborn son) with his work schedule leaves Stephen running on coffee fumes and falling asleep at the most inconvenient times, including mid-broadcast.

Stephen treads a narrow path at CIFU. When he arrived, the station ranked dead last in ratings. Months into his new hosting position, his show and the station are growing in popularity. He’s something of a golden boy — but he’s a golden boy with a passion for good journalism, which leads him to pursue a story about an encampment of unhoused people on the lawns of the city’s court house.

Bleeding heart liberalism is not the stuff that Mr. George Caulfeild, station owner, believes his new audience wants to hear at eight a.m. and Stephen finds himself in a seriously conflicted position. He needs this job to support his growing family and pay down his crippling mortgage, but he knows this exposé is ethically and politically important — and it’s a journalist’s dream story. Will he be able to pull it all together or is he heading for a downfall?

What People Say

“Radio Jet Lag is a little polished gem of a novel exploring how a sleep-deprived morning show host balances the needs of his young, growing family life with the demands of his intense private radio gig, all while honouring his own principles. By turns funny and moving, fascinating yet familiar, Gregor Craigie has written a novel for our frenetic times.” —Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour

"[Radio Jet Lag] is as engrossing as it is entertaining." —Toronto Star

**

The Girl Who Cried Diamonds, by Rebecca Hirsch Garcia

Genre: Short stories

Publisher: ECW Press

What It's About

A girl born in a small, unnamed pueblo is blessed—or cursed—with the ability to produce valuable gems from her bodily fluids. A tired wife and mother escapes the confines of her oppressive life and body by shapeshifting into a cloud. A girl reckons with the death of her father and her changing familial dynamics while slowly, mysteriously losing her physical senses.

Infused with keen insight and presented in startling prose, the stories invite the reader into an uncanny world out of step with reality while exploring the personal and interpersonal in a way that is undeniably, distinctly human.

What People Say

“Bridging tenderness and violence, and brimming with danger and magic, The Girl Who Cried Diamonds will leave you breathless.” —Anuja Varghese, author of Chrysalis

“In these 14 hard-edged and unapologetic stories, debut author Garcia tackles topics ranging from human trafficking and drug abuse to eating disorders and middle-age angst, and in no-frills prose, carves out bizarre and palpable realities, breathing strange life into a horde of depressed, deprived, and abused characters.” —Publishers Weekly