Literary fiction. Follows a semi-pro wrestler in Nebraska whose life is, relatively speaking, good – he is pretty sure he’s about to hit the big time, he is in a solid long-term relationship, he has a decent day job as a school janitor, and he knows who he is and what he wants. This book …
Literary fiction that is both historical and has a bit of a speculative element. Coming of age in the impoverished, queer, artistic fringe of the Black Atlantic in the 1990s, coupled with an unexpected look at the burgeoning surveillance culture of that era. Captures the feel of a moment that is passing, of a time …
Literary fiction. Follows three women in three different generations of the same family – a riot grrrl-esque musician whom we first meet on her rise to renown in the ’90s, her mother (a hippie), and her paternal grandmother (who migrated to Canada as a young woman). Traces their respective journeys with partners, family, work, sexuality, …
Literary fiction. The young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer protagonist is living in Winnipeg, supporting himself as a cybersex worker, and needs to raise enough money to get back to the reserve community where he grew up, for his stepfather’s funeral. The narrative wanders across the days he has in which to do this, and across his whole life. …
Literary fiction. Short stories, mostly centred on characters who are Black girls and young women living in Florida. Relationships, loss, embodied messiness in everyday life and in those few-in-a-lifetime moments when everything changes. The stories were more distinct from each other than you often find in an early-career collection like this, while still having a …
Literary fiction. Two interspersed narratives set in London, England, one in the Victorian era and one in the present day, each following an employee of the same encyclopedic dictionary. In the older time period, it is a bustling concern, with dozens of lexicographers filling a massive building, working slowly towards the hoped-for publication. That blessed …
Literary fiction. From an author based in Argentina, and translated from Spanish. Short stories. Mostly quite dark. Some drift towards, and some into, the fantastical. Abducted children who mysteriously return, sort of. Teen Ouija board sessions gone awry. A family whose neighbourhood mistreats a homeless man and then becomes terribly unlucky. A tired ghost in …
Literary fiction. Australian. The novel takes place over one evening – a woman getting ready for a party, at the party, and then back home afterwards with a man she met at the party. The main character is autistic (as is the author). The book is a detailed portrayal of her incredibly rich inner life …
Literary fiction. Draws, I think, on Nishnaabeg storytelling traditions, which I know little about. The building blocks of the book are units of text ranging from a sentence to a couple of pages, each focused on one of the book’s characters. These characters are human and not, and introduced in a way to unsettle the …
Literary fiction. A family novel focused on a mother and her twin daughters. The mother, for her entire life, is seen by most as not-quite-right or worse, though her own narrative of things is rather different. And the twins, one straight and one queer, are sent on very different trajectories after a “bad thing” happens …