Canadian Books

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 GILLER PRIZE*

From the author of the nationally bestselling Strangers saga comes a heartrending story of two Michif sisters who must face their past trauma when their mother is called out for false claims to Indigenous identity.

June and her sister, lyn, are NDNs—real ones.

Lyn has her pottery artwork, her precocious kid, Willow, and the uncertain terrain of her midlife to keep her mind, heart and hands busy. June, a Métis Studies professor, yearns to uproot from Vancouver and move. With her loving partner, Sigh, and their faithful pup, June decides to buy a house in the last place on earth she imagined she’d end up: back home in Winnipeg with her family.

But then into lyn and June’s busy lives a bomb drops: their estranged and very white mother, Renee, is called out as a “pretendian.” Under the name (get this) Raven Bearclaw, Renee had topped the charts in the Canadian art world for winning awards and recognition for her Indigenous-style work.

The news is quickly picked up by the media and sparks an enraged online backlash. As the sisters are pulled into the painful tangle of lies their mother has told and the hurt she has caused, searing memories from their unresolved childhood trauma, which still manages to spill into their well curated adult worlds, come rippling to the surface.

In prose so powerful it could strike a match, real ones is written with the same signature wit and heart on display in The Break, The Strangers and The Circle. An energetic, probing and ultimately hopeful story, real ones pays homage to the long-fought, hard-won battles of Michif (Métis) people to regain ownership of their identity and the right to say who is and isn’t Métis.

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katherena vermette (she/her/hers) is a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her first book, North End Love Songs (Muses’ Company), won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Her novels The Break (House of Anansi), The Strangers and The Circle (Hamish Hamilton) were all national bestsellers and won multiple literary awards. Her work for children and young adults includes the picture book The Girl and the Wolf (Theytus) and the graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo (Highwater). She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, and an honourary Doctor of Letters from the University of Manitoba. katherena lives with her kids—fur and human—in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.

WJB Book Club Pick for September 2023!

Use code BOOKCLUB for 20% off this title, and meet us to discuss it on Thursday September 29th at 6:00pm!

“A nuanced, complex, and highly original novel.” —Charles Yu, National Book Award–winning author of Interior Chinatown

A fresh, unique work of metafiction that follows a graphic novelist who loses control of his own narrative when he attempts to write the story of his fraught upbringing in 1980s Chinatown.

In a Chinatown housing project lives twelve-year-old Benny, his ailing grandmother, and his strange neighbor Constantine, a man who believes he’s a reincarnated medieval samurai. When his grandmother is hospitalized, Benny manages to survive on his own until a social worker comes snooping. With no other family, he is reluctantly taken in by Constantine and soon, an unlikely bond forms between the two.

At least, that’s what Yu, the narrator of the story, wants to write.

The creator of a bestselling comic book, Yu is struggling with continuing the poignant tale of Benny and can’t help but interject from the present day, slowly revealing a darker backstory. Can Yu confront the demons he’s spent his adult life avoiding or risk his own life...and Benny’s?

“Instructive as it is inspiring, The Double Life of Benson Yu is a phenomenal example of a writer taking real risks in order to reveal and reckon with deep-rooted, tormenting truths as a means of moving forward. Kevin Chong has crafted a novel that will get your heart pumping, mind jumping, and, best of all, fingers turning” (Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author).

Kevin Chong is the award-winning author of several books of fiction and nonfiction. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Rumpus, and more. He currently lives in Vancouver and is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus.

We like beer in Canada. We really, really like it. And it’s not just a fly-by-night, sordid little affair. We’re in it long term. We spend something like $8 billion a year on beer. From barley growers to label designers, more than 170,000 Canadians owe their full time jobs directly or indirectly to beer. The rest of us just do what we can to help.

In the long-awaited follow up to Notes on a Beermat, Pashley explores beer in Canada, covering many salient points, including chapters on

• Frère Ambroise, Who Started It All (Unless He Didn’t)

• Us Against Them: Canadians and Our Neighbours to the South

• When Canadians Knew Squat: The Stubby in Our Lives

• Beer: Isn’t It Bad for You and Bad for the Planet?

• Ale or Lager? East Is East and West Isn’t

• Barkeep! Gimme Another Light Dry Low-Carb Ice Beer with No Aftertaste

• Are You a Beer Geek? (There’s No Right Answer)

• The Future of Beer: Can I Afford to Drink Beer? (Can You Afford Not To?)

And much, much more!

Perfect for long afternoons and rainy days, The Great Canadian Cottage Puzzle Book is packed with family fun: word searches, crosswords, word ladders, quizzes and much more. Puzzles feature Canadian clues and use Canadian spelling and references. With trivia, unique Canadian place names, and tips to make the most of a cottaging day, The Great Canadian Cottage Puzzle Book is a must for every Canadian family.

Celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday with 150 scenes that celebrate the beauty of our home and native land.

A day in the life of one of Canada’s most iconic animals, from nationally celebrated and bestselling creator Paul Covello 

 I am a beaver, and I do what beavers do.

Come along and spend the day with an adorable beaver kit! Can you chomp through a tree, swim in a stream and help your family build a lodge? You could, if you were a beaver!

This bright and joyful board book is perfect for young animal lovers and book lovers alike.

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AINSLIE HOGARTH is the author of the YA novels The Lonely and The Boy Meets Girl Massacre (Annotated). She lives in Canada with her husband, kids, and little dog.

In You Are Here, astronaut Chris Hadfield creates a surprisingly intimate and compelling visual essay about the planet we live on, choosing the best from the thousands of photos he took on the International Space Station.

     Chris Hadfield's new book shows us our home--our city, country, continent, our whole planet--from a unique perspective. The millions of us who followed Chris's Twitter feed from the ISS thought we knew what we were looking at when we saw his photos. This photo documentary shows us we didn't. We caught the beauty but missed the meaning. Curated from images never before shared, Chris's big picture reveals why our planet looks the way it does and why we live where we do. Chris sees more in these images than we do, not just because he's spent months in space but because his in-depth knowledge of geology, geography and meteorology allows him to read the mysteries the photos reveal.

     Divided by continent, You Are Here represents one (idealized) orbit of the ISS. This planetary photo tour--surprising, playful, thought-provoking and visually delightful--is punctuated with fun, fascinating commentary on life in zero gravity, too. In the spirit of his #1 bestselling An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, You Are Here opens a singular window on our planet, using remarkable photographs to illuminate the history and consequences of human settlement, the magnificence (and wit) of never-before-noticed landscapes, and the power of the natural forces shaping our world and the future of our species.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Popular blogger and lifestyle influencer Monika Hibbs shares her favourite recipes and crafts to bring thoughtful touches to all of life's moments--big or small.

Monika Hibbs has found joy in planning gatherings since she was a little girl, but it's not just the hallmark occasions she spends time thinking about. Over the years, she has learned just how important it is to slow down and savour life's simple, everyday moments, in addition to the holidays and milestones. In Gather at Home, Monika Hibbs shares her favourite relaxed and easy ways to make your everyday moments and seasonal celebrations special. Use Monika's collection of over 100 simple recipes, crafts, and do-it-yourself projects, conveniently divided by season, to turn your Friday family games night, Mother's Day brunch, holiday dinner, or outdoor evening barbecue into something memorable, and to create other effortless moments that your friends and family will cherish for years to come. You'll find breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert ideas to fit the mood of every season, as well as crafts and do-it-yourself projects you can easily get the kids involved with. Draw inspiration from the lush photography, and add Monika's extra-special touches to make every moment a well-crafted one that will show your family and friends just how much you care.

In the days of Roch’s childhood, winters in the village of Ste. Justine were long. Life centered around school, church, and the hockey rink, and every boy’s hero was Montreal Canadiens hockey legend Maurice Richard. Everyone wore Richard’s number 9. They laced their skates like Richard. They even wore their hair like Richard. When Roch outgrows his cherished Canadiens sweater, his mother writes away for a new one. Much to Roch’s horror, he is sent the blue and white sweater of the rival Toronto Maple Leafs, dreaded and hated foes to his beloved team. How can Roch face the other kids at the rink?

WJB's Book Club Pick for March 2026!

Use code BOOKCLUB to get 20% off at checkout. 

Winner of the 2025 Giller Prize

From Giller Prize and O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa comes a revelatory novel about loneliness, love, labour, and class. An intimate and sharply written book following a nail salon owner as she toils away for the privileged clients who don't even know her true name.

"One of the greatest novels I have ever read." RITA BULLWINKEL
"A knockout: every punch lands." ELEANOR CATTON

Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound depth. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complicated power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange.
     As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.
     Told over a single day, with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms.