Canadian Literature

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

The Juvie Three (2008) is a young adult novel by Gordon Korman. It is a unique coming-of-age story about personal transformation and found family, and a commentary on the stigmas that often burden those held back by their pasts. Korman challenges these societal perceptions and shows that we all have the power to change. This study guide references the 2008 paperback edition from Hyperion Books.Plot SummaryGraham Fosse, known as “Gecko,” drives a stolen getaway car... Read The Juvie Three Summary

Kathleen Grissom’s 2010 novel, The Kitchen House, is a work of historical fiction that centers on the happenings at Captain James Pyke’s southern Virginia tobacco plantation, Tall Oaks, beginning in 1791. The two narrative threads follow Lavinia, a seven-year-old Irish orphan working at Tall Oaks as an indentured servant, and Belle, the beautiful young daughter of James and his slave. The novel is told from the first-person perspectives of Belle and Lavinia alternately over 55... Read The Kitchen House Summary

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The Long Way Home (2014) is the 10th novel in the Inspector Gamache series written by the Canadian author Louise Penny. Like the other books in the series, the novel revolves around the village of Three Pines, Quebec, although it also encompasses events in other places. In addition to a central mystery focused on a wife’s attempt to find her estranged husband, the novel explores themes of art, creativity, ambition, and loss. This guide references... Read The Long Way Home Summary

The Luminaries (2013) by Eleanor Catton is historical fiction written in the style of a 19th-century serial novel. It is set during the gold rush on the South Island of New Zealand in the 1860s. A whodunit told using two overlapping timelines and extensive flashbacks, it deploys motifs of astrology to paint a detailed portrait of class, gender, and conflict on the colonial frontier. The novel won the Man Booker Prize in 2013; at the... Read The Luminaries Summary

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“The Management of Grief” is a short story by Bharati Mukherjee. It was published in 1988 as a part of her collection entitled The Middleman and Other Stories. It also appeared in The Best American Short Stories of 1989 and in The Best American Short Stories of the Eighties.“The Management of Grief” is narrated from the perspective of Shaila Bhave, a middle-aged Indian widow and an immigrant to Canada. She has recently lost her husband... Read The Management of Grief Summary

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline is a science fiction novel set in a post-apocalyptic Canada where climate devastation ravages the world and the Canadian government’s Recruiters hunt Natives for the dreams that are woven into their bone marrow. Millions have died in the wake of global warming, and those who remain have experienced such extensive trauma that they have lost the ability to dream. Dimaline describes a world plagued by natural disasters, with vivid descriptions... Read The Marrow Thieves Summary