FINALLY!

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at long last, a rainy day in this hot-humid-no rain- summer. time to get to work on book club. we are very excited to announce that our good friend, editor at the new quarterly, organizer extraordinaire of the wild writers festival and  author, pamela mulloy, has written a book of fiction!

pamela will join us on september 24 at public kitchen to talk about her book, 'the deserters'. watch this page (and be sure to sign up for our email list, if you have not already) for more details about tickets going on sale.

Shifting across three countries, The Deserters explores themes of trust, isolation, abandonment, and emotional disconnection in a world dramatically altered by the experience of war. Eugenie is trying—and mostly failing—to restore an inherited old farm in New Brunswick while her husband, a master carpenter, is away in Spain. The work involved overwhelms her, so she hires Dean to help bring the farm back to working order. But Dean is a deserter from the us Army suffering PTSD, and he is using the untamed backwoods of her property to hide out from immigration officials. As Eugenie and Dean fall into a relationship, he is tormented by flashbacks, nightmares, and flickering memories of his wartime experiences in Iraq. And then Eugenie’s husband returns.

In The Deserters, her beautiful and understated debut novel about those who love, those who fight, and those who leave, Pamela Mulloy makes connections between characters, continents and centuries and creates a constellation.
— kerry clare
Sparely and beautifully written, The Deserters is a story not of escape but of the deep, human need to belong to a place, and to one another.
— helen humphreys

coming in april

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elizabeth renzetti, regular columnist with the globe and mail, will join us april 23rd to discuss her new book, 'shrewed', a darkly funny collection of essays that charts her path from timid pre-teen to ‘big, galumphing war horse.’

tickets will go on sale the week of march 19 but, for a sneak preview of one of the essays, see her column in last saturday's globe and mail.

happy new year!

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Karen Connelly’s latest, The Change Room, is drawing big praise for its depiction of a married woman’s surprising, transformative affair. Reviews and fans affirm that the novel meets every one of my Perfect Summer Read criteria: urban, witty, funny, sexy, humane and no doubt as elegantly written as Connelly’s past works. We tend to give so much attention to debut novelists, but I love watching a writer evolve, and Connelly is building a beautiful body of work
— Katrina Onstad, author of Everybody Has Everything and The Weekend Effect

karen connelly will join us in the new year to talk about her book, 'the change room'. mark your calendars on monday january 29th for another great evening. Venue to be announce shortly. 

sign up for our email list to be the first to hear about tickets going on sale.

Connelly’s writing is rich and evocative, and the sex scenes are written tastefully, rolling off the page as easily as her food and landscape descriptions that also populate these pages. I liked the political undertones of this book too-Eliza spoke up for what she believed in, even when her opinions were met with disbelief, and Shar’s experiences as a sex worker were handled with empathy and intelligence.

the wild writers are back!

every year the wild writers festival brings some pretty amazing authors to our community for a festival that features talks and workshops. this year -- on the weekend of november 3-5 -- is no exception and you can get full details about the events and ticket prices here

two events in particular are not to be missed: the friday night showcase at the CIGI auditorium; this year featuring alison pick and kathleen winter in conversation. and, on sunday, a terrific brunch at rhapsody barrel bar with a panel featuring helen humphreys, wayne johnston and karen connelly. the settings are intimate and the authors are award winners. dont miss it. 

 

another date!

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One suspects that individual readers will react differently to this novel. Some may see a wronged woman; some may instead see a narcissist who focuses on the frailties of others rather than her own. The author’s choice of narrative perspective ensures that this book is likely to provoke lively debate.
— quill and quire

despair not if you missed out on tickets for our event with stephen heighton! we have another evening organized for monday november 6 at nick and nat's uptown 21. this time with karen smythe, author of this side of sad. 

A gifted storyteller reminiscent of Alice Munro or Joan Didion, Karen Smythe finds poetic complexity in the seeming trivialities of the ordinary. Meditative, philosophical, and confessional, This Side of Sad is a provocative and piercing novel that explores the disintegration of a marriage; the enduring colloquy between the living and the dead; and the meaning we find within the random architecture of despair and joy.

buy tickets here

For fans of Joan Didion and Sheila Heti, and reminiscent of Jenny Offill’s The Department of Speculation, Karen Smythe’s THIS SIDE OF SAD is a mesmerizing tour of a woman’s fractured past – a provocative and piercing novel that lingers in mind and heart
— transatlantic agency