Canadian Literature

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The Wars by Timothy Findley is a 1977 novel about Robert Ross, a young Canadian officer who enlists in the military and fights in the First World War. The novel uses first, second, and third person narrative points of view. By switching between the different perspectives, the novel gives the reader the sense that they are a historian searching through archives, looking at photographs, and interviewing people from Robert’s life. The book is an example... Read The Wars Summary

This study guide refers to the 2009 House of Anansi Press edition of Wade Davis’s The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. The Wayfinders collects a series of five Massey Lectures that Davis delivered in Canada in 2009. Davis is a Colombian-Canadian anthropologist and ethnobotanist, and the Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. This position, as well as his long anthropological career, has allowed Davis to spend time with many of the... Read The Wayfinders Summary

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The World According to Garp, John Irving’s fourth novel, was first published in 1978 and continues to enjoy a wide circulation. The novel features elements drawn from Irving’s life and is a literary satire of gender dynamics in the wake of second-wave feminism. Irving himself claims that it’s a protest novel. The main subject areas include parenthood, death, feminism, manhood and masculinity, marriage and family structures, the influence of literature in a reader’s life, and... Read The World According To Garp Summary

The Year of the Flood (2009) is a speculative fiction novel by Margaret Atwood, an award-winning novelist, poet, literary critic, and environmental activist from Canada. Published after Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood is the second book of the MaddAddam trilogy, followed by MaddAddam (2013). Exploring themes like human influence on the environment and the physical abuse and sexual objectification of women, The Year of the Flood brought Atwood great acclaim, particularly... Read The Year of the Flood Summary

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This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate is Naomi Klein's fourth book. Published in 2014, it explores the issue of climate change from an anticapitalistic political perspective and considers whether contemporary market-driven policies are adequate for responding to the global crisis. The book won the 2014 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction and was adapted into a documentary by Avi Lewis.Klein is a Canadian author, filmmaker, and activist whose work centers on anticapitalist critique... Read This Changes Everything Summary

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This One Summer is a Canadian young adult graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by her cousin, Jillian Tamaki. Mariko Tamaki has written several graphic novels, and has worked for both Marvel and DC Comics. This One Summer was originally published in 2014 by Groundwood Books, and follows the summer experiences of two young girls approaching adolescence and watching their parents cope with the various pressures of adulthood. The novel has been the... Read This One Summer Summary

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Three Day Road is a harrowing war narrative that details the interconnected lives of several Cree Indians during World War One. Xavier Bird and Elijah Whiskeyjack are best friends who have lived as bush Indians for most of their lives. They live with Xavier’s aunt, Niska, who has taught Xavier how to live in the old ways. Xavier, in turn, has shown Elijah. One day, the boys hear about a great war taking place in... Read Three Day Road Summary

Through Black Spruce, published in 2008, is Canadian author Joseph Boyden’s second novel. His first, Three Day Road (2005), is a work of historical fiction based on the life of Xavier Bird. Through Black Spruce focuses on Xavier’s son, Will Bird, and his granddaughter, Annie Bird. Boyden uses storytelling as a narrative framework to share the Bird family’s story. Annie and Will narrate alternating chapters, telling stories about their past year as the reader also... Read Through Black Spruce Summary

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