The Global Calcuttan Magazine Displayed with permission from National Post
The fall is like Oscar season for books, except that the drinking at book awards events is more like the Golden Globes
Autumn is upon us, which means the Canadian literary award season is just around the corner, along with the roll-out of the year’s biggest books. Basically, the fall is like Oscar season for books, except that the drinking at book awards events is more like the Golden Globes.
But I digress. Here are the books you should be reading in September:
The Hidden Keys | André Alexis | Coach House | 232 pp; $19.75 | September 20
Most Giller Prize-winning novels don’t have a follow-up one short year later, but readers of André Alexis’s Fifteen Dogs can move right on to The Hidden Keys, a novel inspired by Treasure Island.
The Wonder | Emma Donoghue | HarperCollins | 304 pp; $32.99 | September 20
From the bestselling author of Room (adapted into the Academy Award-winning film), The Wonder is a psychological thriller about a girl thought to be a miracle, but who may actually be in mortal danger.
Finding Franklin: The Untold Story of a 165-Year-Old Search | Russell A. Potter | McGill-Queens University Press | 280 pp; $39.95 | already on sale
One of the few books that actually earns the gerund in its title: Finding Franklin searches out the searchers, bringing a new dimension to the lost Franklin Expedition, one of Canada’s most enduring mysteries.
The Nutshell | Ian McEwan | Knopf Canada | 208 pp; $20.95 | September 13
If you’re ho-hum about an author with six Man Booker nominations, who happens to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, what if I told you that The Nutshell is narrated by an unborn child who begins to suspect his mother of plotting to murder his father? Would you be interested in a new novel by Ian McEwan then?
The Lesser Bohemians | Eimear McBride | McClelland & Stewart | 320 pp; $32.95 | September 20
McBride’s debut, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, took years to find a publisher before becoming a sensation. No one is making the same mistake with her sophomore effort, about a young drama student in 1990’s London and her stormy relationship with an older actor.
Based on a True Story: A Memoir | Norm Macdonald | Collins | 256 pp; $29.99 | September 20
A: If you love Norm Macdonald, you’ll love this. B: If Norm makes you uncomfortable, this will make you uncomfortable. C: If you love being made uncomfortable by Norm Macdonald – actually this is just A again.
The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood | Belle Boggs | Graywolf | 224 pp; $22.99 | September 6.
Expanded from an essay that went viral in 2012, The Art of Waiting is a moving, meditative collection of writings on one of life’s most shared – but too often silent – experiences.