Readers of Wanderlust, an anthology of travel stories, will at once feel that need to roam, the longing for surprise, the thrill of just recognizing the threat of danger, and the nomadic impulse simply to move oneself for the sake of moving, that restless and endless quest for a new beginning — even if it means the end of one life and the start of a new one. In every story a character embarks on a journey of discovery. They travel through the Nordic Viking age, experience family life in Italy, interpret the Lascaux Caves in France, climb Nicaragua’s volcanoes, undertake a road trip through the villages of Mexico, and finally are brought back to the Canadian prairies. Editor and contributor Byrna Barclay draws inspiration from the philosophers who expounded on the theory that, rather than change, a person simply becomes more of what he or she already was at birth. Anthology Contributors: Byrna Barclay, Brenda Niskala, Linda Biasotto, James Trettwer, Shelley Banks, Kelley-Anne Riess, Annette Bower.
Short stories
- Author:Barclay, ByrnaSummary:
- Author:Weaver, KeithSummary:
Written over a period of three years and across a range of styles and lengths, Walking with Albert is Keith Weaver's first short story compilation. These stories range from micro-narratives of a few pages in length to what could be called miniature novellas. Weaver's stories cover a vast territorial expanse, taking the reader from outer space to the minutia of Earth's countryside, then into the human heart. One story concerns a young man's unrealised expectation of winning a Fields Medal, while others explore the joys and challenges of rural life, past and present. Probing, experimental, and often funny, this collection includes one story that hints at astrophysics, another about a death on a golf course, and another about a cat that defies anti-Semitism from the past. Weaver's imagination ranges across the human and animal worlds and extends to the world of things. In one story, two starkly mismatched men find something in common on a summer morning, while another story concerns itself with a pair of toast tongs. Taken together, these stories represent a bold new direction in a body of work that includes three novels, a novella, and works of nonfiction.
- Author:Pacey, Desmond, Tierney, Frank M.Summary:
From the Canadian Short Story Library, twelve stories from Desmond Pacey, a major figure in Canadian Literature and criticism. The twelve stories are typical of Pacey's story-telling technique and what emerges from them is a distinctive, even powerful optimism, charity, tolerance and deep understanding of human nature. The sombre side of life is honestly portrayed and juxtaposed against the importance of love as a unifying force. These stories, presented in a simple straightforward manner, reveal man as he is: fragile, vulnerable, capable of crude, selfish and irrational behaviour, subject to defeat and despair; but also, heroic, enlightened, capable of strength, wisdom, hope and joy.
- Author:Dean, LeesaSummary:
Thirteen stories that expose the complications of women who dare to deviate from the status quo. In the land of fiction, women are too often cast as inherently good—typically kind, always considerate, and traditionally in possession of high morals. Not so in the recklessly audacious stories in Waiting for the Cyclone. A mother in need of rehabilitation, a wife who wakes up in the arms of a man who isn’t her husband, a young woman who comes face-to-face with a bully from years ago. These women don’t need to be liked, do not comply to set expectations, and are not compelled to make apologies. These women, and a dozen more, are perfectly imperfect. A collection of short stories that behaves much like the weather pattern it was named for, Waiting for the Cyclone is at times fast and reckless and at others, calm yet under high pressure. A powerful literary debut from one of Canada’s most promising young writers.
- Author:Johnson, CraigSummary:
Ten years ago, Craig Johnson wrote his first short story, the Hillerman Award'winning 'Old Indian Trick.' This was one of the earliest appearances of the sheriff who would go on to star in Johnson's bestselling, award-winning novels and the A&E hit series Longmire. Each Christmas Eve thereafter, fans rejoiced when Johnson sent out a new short story featuring an episode in Walt's life that doesn't appear in the novels; over the years, many have asked why they can't buy the stories in book form. Wait for Signs collects those beloved stories and one entirely new story, 'Petunia, Bandit Queen of the Bighorns' for the very first time in a single volume, regular trade hardcover. With glimpses of Walt's past from the incident in 'Ministerial Aide,' when the sheriff is mistaken for a deity, to the hilarious 'Messenger,' where the majority of the action takes place in a Port-A-Potty, Wait for Signs is a necessary addition to any Longmire fan's shelf and a wonderful way to introduce new readers to the fictional world of Absaroka County, Wyoming.
- Author:Metcalf, JohnSummary:
A reSet original. 'Vital Signs' brings together the collected novellas by John Metcalf, a modern master of the form, a writer who Alice Munro has said 'often comes as close to the baffling comedy of human experience as a writer can get.' Ranging from early words like 'The Lady Who Sold Furniture,' about an amoral housekeeper who fences the furniture of her employers, to 'Forde Abroad,' a mature piece that follows Metcalf's alter-ego, writer Robert Forde, as he stumbles through the Iron Curtain to attend a meeting of the Literary and Cultural Association of Slovenia, the novellas serve as the perfect introduction to Metcalf's acclaimed literary style - and as a companion piece to - The Museum at the End of the World, his first full-length collection of fiction in three decades. Elegant, wry, compassionate, and mischievous, with echoes of Kingsley Amis, Evelyn Waugh, and Muriel Spark, 'Vital Signs' taps the funny bone, pierces the heart, and demonstrates why Metcalf has long been considered among the greatest - and most contentious - figures in Canadian literature.
- Author:Lloy, Susan ESummary:
Angst, seduction, escape and extinction control these many tales-a whisper in the ear convinces a lady to take the plunge, another to take up surfing, and a young man to jump in front of a moving train-and there is joy in settling a score with despised neighbours and a conspiracy under the California sun. Some sketches are laced with passion and loss-a son comes to know his mother from a series of letters following her death, while a face transplant changes a man's life, but with it comes the unwanted pursuit of the donor's wife-while others show murderous aspirations and an irrepressible desire for release. Always vital, Vita opens wide the windows into our many lives.
- Author:Fadanni, LaurentSummary:
Corsé, généreux, vif... Dans ce recueil enivrant de vingt nouvelles, Laurent Fadanni, poète et vigneron, laisse Bacchus lui inspirer des personnages savoureux et hauts en couleur. Ainsi, un vin frais et léger tel qu'un muscadet donnera naissance à Pierrot, petit garçon espiègle et timide ramassant des coquillages sur la plage en compagnie de son grand-père ; un barbaresco d'Italie, parfumé et tannique, se transformera en Maria, « vieille jeune fille » balayant l'église du village en attendant le retour de son fiancé disparu soixante ans plus tôt. Vingt crus délicats et raffinés, en bouche comme sur papier, à lire sans modération !
- Author:Dyer, BernadetteSummary:
An artist cooks a Jamaican meal for her straying lover, thinking she might just have the one ingredient that will ensure he never leaves her. A beautiful woman slips into the sea near her Jamaican home and disappears on the eve of a reunion with her Scottish fianc. A white law student and a black harlot do a sexual tango in a shanty with fatal results. Like a tropical breeze, the whiff of exotica blows through the lives of Bernadette Dyer’s characters, whether they are Jamaican immigrants grappling with everyday existence in Canada or residents of Jamaica itself encountering the uncommon and the fabulous under the torrid Caribbean sun. Ghosts haunt crumbling estates, lovers despair amid crashing waves and wind- whipped vistas, dislocated newcomers seek better lives in faraway lands. Magic may be found anywhere, and the wistful and the winsome walk side by side through concrete-and-steel canyons of the inner city or along cliffs where they may topple into a raging surf or collide with an epiphany of boundless possibility.
- Author:Uppal, PriscilaSummary:
This short story is taken from the collection Cover Before Striking. The most common phrase in print is “cover before striking,” a warning to those about to innocently strike a match to be careful not to burn their fingers. Uppal’s characters in Cover Before Striking are all people pushing their lives to new levels of intensity, danger, or passion as they test their limits and those of the world. Implacable and just a little unhinged, the stories of Cover Before Striking each move toward that moment of contact when the sparks begin to fly, when destruction and beauty seem to blur together. With this collection, Priscila Uppal offers the literary equivalent of playing with fire. “Vertigo” was originally published in The Exile Book of Canadian Sports Fiction and Exile magazine.
- Author:Yuknavitch, LidiaSummary:
I tell you, do not go near that place. Do not go near it. Graywolves guard the ground there. Girls are growing from guts, enough for a body and language all the way out of this world. An eight-year-old trauma victim is enlisted as an underground courier, rushing frozen organs through the alleys of Eastern Europe. A young janitor transforms discarded objects into a fantastical, sprawling miniature city until a shocking discovery forces him to rethink his creation. A brazen child tells off a pack of schoolyard tormentors with the spirited invention of an eleventh commandment. A wounded man drives eastward, through tears and grief, toward an unexpected transcendence. Lidia Yuknavitch's bestselling novels The Book of JoanThe Chronology of WaterVerge is a viscerally powerful and moving survey of our modern heartache life.
- Author:Bennett, JonathanSummary:
In these powerful stories the verandah people are Jonathan Bennett's own compatriots: Australians for whom the ever-present verandah is both stage and shelter, a retreat from hostile bushland or city street and a seductive barrier to participation in the wider world.
- Author:McCluskey, ElaineSummary:
Valery the Great is a crackling, electric collection of dark humour that follows the bizarre and beautiful lives of its protagonists. Sometimes sweet and gentle, sometimes sharply sarcastic, the unique narrative voices in this collection are always powerfully touching.
Praise for Valery the Great: "15 Finest Book Covers in Spring Fiction This Year" selection (Something Daily blog) “By turns comic, pathetic, and tenderly tragic, Valery the Great is a charming collection.” (Quill & Quire) “Her voice is scathing, very funny, her stories twisting at the end to leave me a bit stunned. … I loved this book, a short story collections whose curation had as much thought put into it as the stories themselves, a fantastic package with a gorgeous design. In addition to considerable talent, there is furious energy at work here, McCluskey giving it her all, and as a result, reading was a pleasure.” (Pickle Me This) “McCluskey is at her finest when she uses sharp humour and skillful, economic description to communicate her fatalistic worldview.” (The Globe and Mail)
- Author:Johnson, L.S.Summary:
Dwarves and golems, Fates and minotaurs, metamorphoses, murder, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Each story in L.S. Johnson’s remarkable collection demonstrates the limitless capacity of intelligent speculative fiction to enthrall, inspire, and amaze.
- Author:Bertin, KrisSummary:
A woman becomes obsessed with a story about her family from 1890-when a naked, mute girl stumbled onto their property-and whether or not it really happened. A self-help guru and his chief strategist take their most affluent and unstable clients on a harrowing nature hike that destroys their company. A young convict in a prison creative writing class chronicles the rise and fall of his cellblock's resident peacemaker. A rural neighbourhood is mesmerized by the coming of a strange and powerful new homeowner who is in the middle of reinventing herself. The stories of Use Your Imagination! are about stories, about the way we define and give shape to ourselves through all kinds of narratives, true or not. In seven long stories, Kris Bertin examines the complex labyrinth of lies, delusions, compromise, and fabrication that makes up our personal history and mythology. Sometimes funny, strange, or frightening, these stories represent Bertin's follow-up to his critically acclaimed, award-winning debut, Bad Things Happen.
- Author:Summary:
Collects over thirty of the best entries in the Akashic noir series, including stories by Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, and T. Jefferson Parker.
- Author:Akinturk, Ayse SuleSummary:
Us, Now is a collection of stories connecting Newfoundland and Labrador to the world via racialized NL Newfoundlanders. These are stories that fit George Elliot Clarke's thinking on what a truly Canadian national tale might be: local, yet connected, broadly and diversely. They are at their essence about the concept of home, finding home, feeling at home, and communicating about home. The catalogue has it right: these writers create "new visions of an in-the-present-moment Newfoundland."
- Author:Levy, JerrySummary:
Jerry Levy’s gritty, urban tales are driven by arresting prose and engaging human drama. Urban Legend is psychologically intense with characters attempting to overcome personal loss in peculiar ways. In “Paris is a Woman” a man hopes that, by escaping to Paris, he will learn to manage his uncontrollable emotions; devastated by the death of his fiancée, a man in “The Golem of New York” enlists the aid of a rabbi schooled in Kaballah to help him erect a golem in her image; the protagonist in “Stolen Words” uncovers a trove of unpublished literary works that he hopes will result in fame and fortune; and, in “Phoenix Rising” a sculptress about to commit suicide rescues a cat from a busy highway and instantly gains notoriety.
- Author:Butcher, JimSummary:
Villains have all the fun-everyone knows that-and this anthology takes you on a wild ride through the dark side! The top villains from sixteen urban fantasy series get their own stories-including the baddies of New York Times bestselling authors Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, and Jonathan Maberry. For every hero trying to save the world, there's a villain trying to tear it all down. In this can't-miss anthology edited by Joseph Nassise (The Templar Chronicles), you get to plot world domination with the best of the evildoers we love to hate! This outstanding collection brings you stories told from the villains' point of view, imparting a fresh and unique take on the evil masterminds, wicked witches, and infernal personalities that skulk in the pages of today's most popular series. The full anthology features stories by Jim Butcher (the Dresden Files), Kelley Armstrong (the Cainsville and Otherworld series), Seanan McGuire (October Daye), Kevin Hearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles), Jonathan Maberry (Joe Ledger), Lilith Saintcrow (Jill Kismet), Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Norville), Joseph Nassise (Templar Chronicles), C.E. Murphy (Walker Papers), Steven Savile (Glasstown), Caitlin Kittredge (the Hellhound Chronicles and the Black London series), Jeffrey Somers (The Ustari Cycle), Sam Witt (Pitchfork County), Craig Schaefer (Daniel Faust), Jon F. Merz (Lawson Vampire), and Diana Pharaoh Francis (Horngate Witches).
- Author:Booker, JulieSummary:
Up Up Up heralds the arrival of a writer of astonishing range, compassion, and acuity. In this stunning short story collection, Julie Booker grabs the reins from writers like Lydia Millet and Miranda July and takes off at full speed, and in directions all her own. A pair of plus-sized friends make tracks for a kayaking trip in Alaska. A woman vacations with her parents at a Texas trailer park, wondering why she can’t meet a man. A worldly member of a tour group selects sacrifices from among the most cherished belongings of her fellow travellers. A young man dreams of rescuing an abusive friend’s girlfriend -- and of having her for himself... Through these deceptively simple storylines, Booker reminds us of the power of words to enlighten and move us -- but most of all, to delight us. Her writing is a revelation -- wildly whimsical and yet razorsharp, highly unusual and yet prompting gasps of recognition on every page. Reader, prepare to meet your new favourite writer.
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