Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Novel release delayed due to you know what

Hey gang: So today was supposed to be the official publication date for my new novel, All the Animals on Earth, but Wolsak & Wynn has wisely decided to hold off its release until September. It is absolutely for the best as we wait to see how the book retail landscape will shape up over the next few months of the pandemic.

For those who have already pre-ordered a copy - thank you so much! Sorry you'll have to wait a bit longer to have one in your hands. If you haven't yet but are thinking about it, this is still a good time to do so. Pre-orders really help publishers and bookstores out (and give a much-needed confidence boost to lowly writers scribbling away in isolation on the next thing). The book industry, like so many in these strange and troubled times, need as much support as you have to give.

As always, huge thanks to Noelle Allen, Paul Vermeersch, Ashley Hisson and the whole team at W&W for their continued awesomeness. Thanks to Emily Dockrill Jones, who did a corking-good job on the copy edit, and to Michel Vrana for that amazing cover design.

Monday, May 11, 2020

My Quill and Quire review of Where the Waters Meet, by Stéphanie Boulay ...

... is now up on the Q&Q website. This novel was one of the odder reads I've had so far this year. It's quite an elliptical treatise on identity, set in the wilds of rural Quebec. Translated from the French by Ghislaine LeFranc, this book will be an acquired taste for English readers, but if you like tales about young girls coming of age told in an opaque voice, this may just be the novel for you.

Friday, May 8, 2020

My review of The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel ....

is now available on the Canadian Writers Abroad website. This novel has been getting a lot of attention lately, and deservedly so. It's about many things, but it's primarily about a Bernie Madoff-esque Ponzi scheme and its impact on a multitude of characters, whose lives interlock in various ways throughout the story. It's definitely one of the best books I've read so far in 2020 and I can't recommend it highly enough.