Canadian Literature

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Published in 1969, The Edible Woman was Margret Atwood’s first novel and established her reputation as a significant contemporary novelist. The Edible Woman follows recently engaged Marian McAlpin as she attempts to reconcile her need for personal autonomy with the gendered expectations inherent within the roles of a wife and mother. As Marian begins to feel a loss of identity, her body suddenly refuses certain foods, particularly meat. To reflect the inner struggle her protagonist... Read The Edible Woman Summary

The English Patient (1992) is a historical romance novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The novel explores the relationships between four dissimilar people living in an abandoned Italian monastery at the end of World War II. The eponymous English patient—actually a Hungarian count burned beyond recognition—tells Canadian nurse Hana the story of his forbidden romance with British amateur cartographer Katharine Clifton as their small team attempted, several years earlier, to map North African deserts. Using... Read The English Patient Summary

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First published in 1985, Margaret Atwood’s sixth novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, has received numerous accolades and prizes and remains widely critically celebrated. Set in what used to be the United States but is now a repressive theocracy called the Republic of Gilead, the dystopian novel is narrated by the protagonist, Offred, who recounts her daily experiences intercut with memories of her life before the revolution and during her training to become a “Handmaid.” Atwood is an... Read The Handmaid's Tale Summary

Margaret Atwood’s The Heart Goes Last is a work of speculative fiction released in 2015. The novel is a reworking of her Positron series for the website Byliner: four interconnected stories that were digitally released as episodes over the course of a year, starting in March 2012. The project aimed to recapture the literary tradition of serialization, but the final installment was never released, and the novel is intended to bring things together and provide... Read The Heart Goes Last Summary

The Hero’s Walk (2000) is a novel by Anita Rau Badami. It won the Regional Commonwealth Writers Prize, Italy’s Premio Berto, and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as a finalist for the Kiriyama Prize.Plot SummaryThe novel takes place in the fictional town of Torturpuram, near Madras, in southern India. It is the middle of July, and Sripathi Rao is on the balcony of... Read The Hero's Walk Summary

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Canadian author Lawrence Hill published The Illegal in 2015. This fast-paced fictional political thriller, which focuses on a young undocumented marathon runner, uses multiple perspectives and irony to question what it really means to be a citizen, exploring themes of Race, Privilege, and Power, Legality Versus Justice, and The Power of Marginalized Voices. Hill is a noted contributor to the fiction and nonfiction genres, particularly for his exploration of issues related to race. The Illegal furthers... Read The Illegal Summary

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America is a 2012 nonfiction book by Thomas King about the history of relations between Indigenous people and American settler colonialism. King is a novelist of Cherokee descent, and The Inconvenient Indian is his first book of nonfiction. The book was awarded the CBA Libris Award for Best Non-Fiction Book in 2013. This guide follows the first edition of the book.Content Warning: Both the... Read The Inconvenient Indian Summary

The Incredible Journey was written by Sheila Burnford and published in 1960. It is a children’s title—although Burnford has asserted that it was not meant for children exclusively. The novel began to enjoy cultural prominence when it was adapted into a Disney film in 1963. It was also re-made in a 1993 film. Plot SummaryIt is the beginning of an Indian summer in northwest Ontario at the outset of the story. The writer John Longridge... Read The Incredible Journey Summary

The Jade Peony is a 1995 novel by Wayson Choy. The book is divided into three parts, each with a distinct narrator. Each narrator is a child belonging to a Chinese-Canadian family; the novel is set during the escalation of World War II. The book follows each of these characters in a fully developed plot arc. Together, the parts form a tapestry that provides the reader with an incisive and insightful emotional, historical, and sociological... Read The Jade Peony Summary