Doté d’un corps asymétrique, Robin, le Zog, rêve de traverser l’énigmatique « rivière à damiers » qui déchire en deux hémisphères sa petite planète. Son ambition? Rien de moins que d’établir le « contact » avec les Zots, l’autre peuple dont on ne connaît pas grand-chose et dont on en dit encore moins de bien. La rivière est pourtant infranchissable : tel un échiquier où les cases noires contiennent des remous meurtriers et les cases blanches une eau parfaitement calme, elle est à la fois monstre de légende et frontière naturelle. Mais quelle idée saugrenue que de tenter de traverser? Son voyage ne sera pas de tout repos, et il sera témoin de l’ultime abomination qui lui coûtera bien plus que ses illusions. À des années lumières de là, Hubert, un GNOM (pour Génétiquement NON Modifié) et ses trois amis humains « normaux », sont à ce point blasés par leur travail dans un coin perdu de la galaxie qu’ils s’organisent une petite virée sur Terre aux « frais de la reine ». Certes, les technologies ont évolué dans les 2000 dernières années… mais pas l’humanité avec ses défauts crasses et ses éléments parasitaires qui embourbent un système socio-économique tout aussi corrompu, et encore plus chaotique. Aussi impossible que soit ce parcours, il mènera pourtant Hubert aussi près qu’il n’a jamais été de réaliser lui aussi son rêve : découvrir une nouvelle souche de vie dans l’univers… à moins qu’il ne finisse parqué dans une « réserve naturelle » pour humains non génétiquement modifiés!
Canadian fiction
- Author:Chaussé, PascalSummary:
- Author:Choquette, NatalieSummary:
Zouki vit dans une grande cité grise et maussade. Il rêve d'escapades, mais ses parents sont toujours pressés et stressés. Surtout le matin, dans le métro, où personne ne sourit. Un jour, Zouki y entend le son d'un mystérieux instrument. « Écoute-moi, écoute-moi ! » semble lui dire la musique qui résonne et carillonne avec obstination dans les couloirs du métro. C'est Papyre le vampire qui joue du cymbalum tandis que son petit chien mécanique relance la cadence avec humour en tapant sur son tambour. Ensorcelé par la musique classique, le petit garçon vivra une étrange aventure….
- Author:Arseneault, PhilippeSummary:
A Gothic tale of the macabre, with strong accents of cruelty, about the adventures of an irrepressible young woman named Zora Korteniemi, who combines traits of Pollyanna with those of the Marquis de Sade. Set in the fictional state of Karelia, on the murky border between Finland and Russia in the days of horseback and hearth fires, this surreal novel--inspired by Norse mythology--won the 2013 Robert-Cliche Prize. 2017.
- Author:Wynne-Jones, Tim, Beddows, Eric, Wynne-Jones, TimSummary:
This fanciful nautical adventure stars a winsome cat named Zoom, who stays indoors paddling in the sink or sailing in the bathtub all night when other self-respecting cats are out mousing and howling at the moon. One day Zoom finds in his Uncle Roy's diary a map of the sea and how to get there, which leads him to the huge house of the beautiful Maria. When, with the turn of a large wheel, mysterious Maria launches him on a wonderful sea voyage, the first of Zoom's adventures begins.
- Author:Cooper, PaigeSummary:
Fantastical, magnetic, and harsh - these are the women in Paige Cooper's debut short story collection Zolitude. They are women who built time machines when they were nine, who buy plane tickets for lovers who won't arrive. They are sisters writhing with dreams, blase about sex but beggared by love - while the police horses have talons and vengeance is wrought by eagles the size of airplanes. Broken-down motorbikes and housebroken tyrannosaurs, cheap cigarettes and mail bombs - Cooper finds the beautiful and the disturbing in both the surreal and the everyday. Troubling, carnal, and haunting, these stories are otherworldly travelogues through banal, eco-fabulist dystopias. Zolitude is a gorgeous, sad, and sexy work of slipstream and an atlas of fantastic isolation. The monstrous is human here, and tender.
- Author:Minaki, ChristinaSummary:
Zoe mostly has it good. Her parents are nice, her brother isn?t half bad, and her dog Ella is amazing. But Zoe thinks her life is boring ? nothing ever changes. She?s stuck in her wheelchair and her parents never let her do anything fun. And it really bugs her that some of the kids think she?s not smart just because her body doesn?t always do what she wants. Then in the midst of the holiday season, Zoe learns about the diverse cultures of her friends at school, and realizes she?s not the only different one in class. While celebrating the traditions of Christmas, Hanukkanh, Kwanzaa, Divali and Eid, she realizes that excitement can arrive in weird and challenging ways. Will Zoe succeed when she needs to take charge for the first time? Or, is having adventures really not as great as she thought?
- Author:Kalteis, DietrichSummary:
“If you like your crime hard and fast, Kalteis is for you.” — The Globe and Mail
Set to the cranking beat and amphetamine buzz of Vancouver’s early punk scene, Zero Avenue follows Frankie Del Rey, a talented and rising punk star who runs just enough dope on the side to pay the bills and keep her band, Waves of Nausea, together. The trouble is she’s running it for Marty Sayles, a powerful drug dealer who controls the Eastside with a fist.
When Frankie strikes up a relationship with Johnny Falco, the owner of one of the only Vancouver clubs willing to give punk a chance, she finds out he’s having his own money problems just keeping Falco’s Nest open. Desperate to keep his club, Johnny raids one of the pot fields Marty Sayles has growing out past Surrey, along Zero Avenue on the U.S. border. He gets away with a pickup load and pays back everybody he owes. Arnie Binz, bass player for Waves of Nausea, finds out about it and decides that was easy enough. But he gets caught by Marty’s crew.
Johnny and Frankie set out to find the missing Arnie, but Marty Sayles is pissed and looking for who ripped off his other field — a trail that leads to Johnny and Frankie.
- Author:Kalteis, DietrichSummary:
"If you like your crime hard and fast, Kalteis is for you."-The Globe and Mail Set to the cranking beat and amphetamine buzz of Vancouver's early punk scene, Zero Avenue follows Frankie Del Rey, a talented and rising punk star who runs just enough dope on the side to pay the bills and keep her band, Middle Finger, together. The trouble is she's running it for Marty Sayles, a powerful drug dealer who controls the Eastside with a fist. When Frankie strikes up a relationship with Johnny Falco, the owner of one of the only Vancouver clubs willing to give punk a chance, she finds out he's having his own money problems just keeping Falco's Nest open. Desperate to keep his club, Johnny raids one of the pot fields Marty Sayles has growing out past Surrey, along Zero Avenue on the U.S. border. He gets away with a pickup load and pays back everybody he owes. Arnie Binz, bass player for Middle Finger, finds out about it and decides that was easy enough. But he gets caught by Marty's crew. Johnny and Frankie set out to find the missing Arnie, but Marty Sayles is pissed and looking for who ripped off his other field-a trail that leads to Johnny and Frankie.
- Author:Butcher, KristenSummary:
Zee and his friends are angry that their old haunt has been replaced by stores that are off-limits to them and storekeepers who treat them with distrust. To let the merchants know what he and his friends think, Zee paints graffiti on the wall of the hardware store. After the wall is repainted, Zee decides to repeat the vandalism, but this time with more artistic flair. A store owner catches him in the act and threatens to call the police -- unless Zee agrees to repair the damage.
- Author:Butala, SharonSummary:
Fiona Lychenko, now a woman in her late sixties, has spent years researching the death of her high school classmate Zara Stanley, who was brutally murdered at the age of twenty. Determined to solve the crime, something the police weren’t able to do, Fiona interviewed everyone she could in her hometown of Ripley, but every trail led to the same dead end. She even published her findings in a book, hoping it would lead to anonymous clues from readers and outliers, and still, nothing. Now, a decade later, Fiona has finally given up hope that the killer would ever be caught. That is until a brown manila envelope turns up under her door and Fiona once again finds herself embroiled in the midst of a controversy so intricate and tangled that one wrong move could be her undoing.Inspired by the unsolved murder of a young girl in 1962 in Saskatoon, Zara’s Dead is the fictional retelling of a very real story, one that has captivated the public and eluded answers for decades.
- Author:Mattich, AlenSummary:
Yugoslavia, 1991. The State is crumbling, and in the midst of the political chaos secret policeman Marko della Torre has been working both sides of the law — but somewhere along the way he's crossed the line. When a corrupt cop called Strumbic helps three hired Bosnian thugs to hunt him down and kill him, della Torre makes a run for it through Croatia, Italy, and finally to London, where he’ll take Strumbic for all he's worth. A page-turning thriller shot through with black humour and razor-sharp dialogue, Zagreb Cowboy is the spectacular debut novel in a taut new crime fiction series.
- Author:Leblanc, FrançoisSummary:
Deux hommes que tout oppose, en apparence du moins. Dans le coin gauche, Roy Berthiaume, un malabar fraîchement sorti de prison après avoir purgé sa peine pour un crime qu’il n’a cessé de nier. Dans le coin droit, Bernard Telmosse, représentant désabusé de la loi et l’ordre, qui n’est plus que l’ombre de lui-même après la tragédie qui l’a frappé de plein fouet quatre ans plus tôt. Patient comme le chasseur, le premier attend le bon moment pour exercer sa vengeance aux dépens du second. Mais peut-on tuer un homme qui a déjà plus ou moins renoncé à la vie, atterré par la perte d’un jeune enfant?
- Author:Krumm, StanSummary:
Zachary's Horses picks up where Zachary’s Gold left off and continues the adventures of Zachary Beddoes. It is 1870, and the ex-lawman is hiding out in the capital of colonial British Columbia, using the name Lincoln Zachary. He soon befriends a series of locals: a young woman with a mysterious background; a pair of young English gentlemen, who are travelling through the area; a manic, alcoholic notary from the Washington Territory; and a rich but unscrupulous local business family, who are organizing what they think will be the horse race of the decade. But not all of his new friends have Zachary’s best intentions at heart, as he becomes involved with a blackmailing scoundrel who knows his true identity and intends to make the most of the situation. Suspense mounts as the day of the horse race approaches. Both love and danger are in the air, and Zachary once again exhibits his ability to do just the wrong thing at the wrong time.Set in a most interesting time and place in our history, Zachary's Horses follows Zachary Beddoes as he struggles to survive the Wild West of the north.
- Author:Krumm, StanSummary:
In 1864, headstrong Pinkerton man Zachary Beddoes is tired of guarding hotels and railway stations, so he decides to quit his life of private law-enforcement and head west for gold. In San Francisco, Zachary hears that the best goldfields are north, in British Columbia. Undeterred by warnings of how harsh and unforgiving the Barkerville goldfields can be, Zachary sets off in search of his fortune. But before he can stake his claim, Zachary unexpectedly becomes an outlaw. Forced to flee into the bush, Zachary must rely on a Chinese prospector named Rosh to keep him alive. In an adventure beyond even Zachary’s wildest dreams, he and Rosh dodge bullets and struggle to survive the wild west of the north.
- Author:Walsh, AnnSummary:
Moving with her mother from Vancouver to Wells, British Columbia, Elizabeth Connell longs for the excitement of the city and her father, brother, and friends left behind. While she is in the peaceful graveyard of nearby Barkerville she finds a small gold ring that has very special powers. By twisting the ring on her finger, Elizabeth is transported to the nineteenth century during the heyday of the gold rush. Caught between her present life with family and friends and a love in the past, Elizabeth learns more than history.
- Author:O'Donnell, DarrenSummary:
Toronto's CN Tower has fallen into the lake. The city is crowded with refugees from the US. Michael and Ruth Racco's dad has, in a rash of road rage, perpetrated the Backhoe Massacre. And, in the middle of it all, little Jimmy Hardcastle has, in the fountain of a suburban mall, walked on water. As helicopters chop the air over Toronto and a paranoid America slides into fascism, kids from south of the border collide with kids from north of the border and, over lattes, ruminate on new possibilities. Your Secrets Sleep With Me is a frenetic, ruthlessly hilarious critique of power and politics. Brilliant, absurd, incisive and fun, this caffeinated novel will take you on a doomed search for the place where you end and everything else begins. But you will not be alone. Shhh. Don't worry. Your secrets sleep with us.
- Author:Hasiuk, BrendaSummary:
Faye is the "good" adopted Chinese daughter. Bev is the wild child. Mannie is the unambitious stoner. What brings them together--and tears them apart--is a need to move beyond the clichés and commit to something--anything--that will bring meaning and joy to their lives. When Faye's long-lost childhood neighbor, Bev, turns up out of the blue, wanting something from her old friend, Faye goes along with Bev's plan. But Mannie, the joyriding daddy of Bev's baby, has a half-crazed romantic agenda of his own. As one cold, miserable prairie spring inches toward summer, a series of unexpected and sometimes explosive decisions sends the trio hurtling toward disaster. A darkly funny portrayal of three unforgettable teenagers feeling their way into adulthood in an imperfect world.
- Author:de la Roche, MazoSummary:
First published in 1935, Young Renny takes us even further back in the Whiteoak family saga to 1906. Renny, the young master of Jalna, is just eighteen. His twenty-year-old sister Meg is engaged to marry the young man next door, Maurice Vaughan Uncle Nick and Uncle Ernest, now in their fifties, have squandered their inheritances abroad on high living and reside again at Jalna. But the plot thickens further, when two outsiders join the mix: A gypsy woman, who seduces Renny, and a distant cousin from Ireland, who befriends Gran, moves into Jalna, and spies on the family. This is book 4 of 16 in The Whiteoak Chronicles. It is followed by Whiteoak Heritage.
- Author:Sher, EmilSummary:
T-- is used to getting grief. He gets it from his mom, who blames herself for his accident years earlier. He gets it from Mr. Lam, who suspects every kid of stealing from his shop. Worst of all, he gets it from Joined at the Hip, a trio of bullies so vicious that they leave T-- terrified of even using his entire name. But T-- has his own strength too: his camera, which captures the unique way he sees the world. His pictures connect him to Ms. Karamath, the kind librarian at school; his friend Sean, whose passion for mysteries is matched only by his love for his dog; and especially Lucy, a homeless woman who shares his admiration for the photographer Diane Arbus. When Lucy is attacked by Joined at the Hip, T-- documents the assault on film. But the bullies know he has the photographs, and their anger could be deadly. What's the right thing for T-- to do? Do pictures ever tell the whole truth? And what if the truth isn't always the right answer?
- Author:Marsh, CharisSummary:
As the second semester at the Vancouver International Ballet Academy approaches, how will four maturing dancers face the new challenges that await them? The Vancouver International Ballet Academy has opened its doors after the winter break, and everyone is back! Julian is finding it difficult to concentrate on dance because of his family; his teachers think he could be great if he could just focus. Kaitlyn believes she’s the best dancer, but her body type is getting in the way of her (and her mother’s) dance ambitions, tempting her to lie. Alexandra is as focused as usual, but others don’t seem to understand how much time and energy she has to give to ballet if she wants to be the best. While Taylor is still criticized at VIBA, she’s getting a lot of positive attention from outside – especially from a recently retired Canadian ballerina who’s taken an interest in her and Julian. Who will get noticed in competition and the spring seminar? Whatever happens, someone’s going to lose and someone’s going to win.