Fiction Books

From an author “destined to become a titan of the macabre and unsettling” (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), a haunting debut—soon to be a Netflix original movie—about two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the house’s previous residents unexpectedly visit.

As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it” (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).

Instant Bestseller

A moving story about two very different sisters, and a love letter to childhood, growing up, and the power of imagination—from the bestselling author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and Interesting Facts About Space.

Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid’s inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.

But Sigrid’s detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She’s haunted by the pains of her past—from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta’s friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.

What unfolds is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.

A lush, enthralling new novel from New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley, set during the reign of James I, in which emissary Andrew Logan must complete a vital mission on behalf of the king—a mission that will threaten not only his own life, but everything he holds dear.

The crown prince is dead, and the court is in turmoil. Only a man of extraordinary gifts can uncover the truth.

1613: King James—sixth of Scotland; first of England; son of Mary, Queen of Scots—has unified both countries under one crown. But the death of his eldest son, Henry, has plunged the nation into mourning, as rumours swirl that the prince was poisoned.

Andrew Logan has heard the rumours, but he’s paid them little heed. As one of the King’s Messengers, he has plenty of secrets to guard, including his own. In these perilous times, when the merest suggestion of witchcraft can lead to torture and hanging, men like Andrew must hide well the fact they were born with the Sight—a gift that allows him to see things others cannot.

And he’ll need all his gifts as he embarks on the perilous trip to capture Sir David Moray—once the prince’s trusted advisor, and now the main suspect in his death—and transport him from Scotland back to England. Andrew must travel with not only his prisoner, but an elderly scribe, sent to keep a written record of the journey, and the scribe’s fiery daughter, Phoebe. With treachery lurking at every turn, Andrew won’t just need to guard his prisoner, but his extraordinary gift, and his heart as well.

Both sweeping and intricate, The King’s Messenger is a spellbinding tale of secrets, love, and honour by a writer at the height of her power.

LONGLISTED FOR CANADA READS 2025

“Etta and Otto and Russell and James is incredibly moving, beautifully written and luminous with wisdom. It is a book that restores one's faith in life even as it deepens its mystery. Wonderful!” —Chris Cleave, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Little Bee

“I've gone. I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. I will try to remember to come back.”

Etta's greatest unfulfilled wish, living in the rolling farmland of Saskatchewan, is to see the sea. And so, at the age of eighty-two she gets up very early one morning, takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 2,000 miles to water.

Meanwhile her husband Otto waits patiently at home, left only with his memories. Their neighbour Russell remembers too, but differently—and he still loves Etta as much as he did more than fifty years ago, before she married Otto.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James is a love story that spans fifty years, three lives, two continents and an ocean. It is a story of love and joy, pain and passion, memory and forgetting—and one incredible journey.

Have you ever wondered why Rabbit has such long ears? Or why Raccoon is wearing a mask? In this collection of funny and unique short stories, young Skye enlightens us in a number of Indigenous teachings, passed down to her from her Ojibway Grandfather. Through her natural gift of storytelling, Skye encourages other children to embrace the art and become storytellers, too!

<head><meta charset="UTF-8" /></head>This much-anticipated, game-changing special edition of Canada's premier annual fiction anthology celebrates the country's best emerging Black writers.

For over thirty years, The Journey Prize Stories has consistently introduced readers to the next generation of great Canadian writers. The 33rd edition of Canada's most prestigious annual fiction anthology proudly continues this tradition by celebrating the best emerging Black writers in the country, as selected by a jury comprising internationally acclaimed, award-winning writers David Chariandy, Esi Edugyan, and Canisia Lubrin.

An eagle-eyed mother and a hungry child contend with the aftereffects of an unusual multi-course meal. Both the debts of the past and the promise of the future hover over two siblings as they debate what to do with an unexpected windfall. A pesky but beloved baboon looms large in the memory of a daughter whose family has been forced to move to a new town. Unclear boundaries and cheerful hypocrisy dominate a woman’s whirlwind romance with a photographer. A schoolgirl contends with complicated emotions as she awaits the return of her long-absent mother. News of a hunter’s death reverberates throughout his family, travelling across oceans and phonelines to trouble his cousin’s already-shaky relationship. An office worker joins a lost grandmother on an unexpected pilgrimage. After years away, a woman journeys back to Jamaica—and back to the sister who refused to leave with her—stirring up insecurities, laughter, and wounds unhealed by time. All the instructions in the world cannot protect a family from the impacts of grief. The only Black girls in school experiment with what it means to be a lady when you’re not yet a woman.

She's been driving him wild for years.

The good kind of wild. The bad kind of wild.

But mostly, the kind of wild that comes with wanting your best friend's little sister and knowing you can't have her.

Forbes may have labeled Ford Grant the World's Hottest Billionaire, but all he cares about is escaping the press and opening a recording studio in gorgeous small town Rose Hill. Something that comes to a screeching halt when he ends up face-to-face with a young girl who claims he's her biological father. Now, he spends his days balancing business with parenting a sullen twelve-year-old, all while trying desperately to keep his hands the hell off his best friend's sister, Rosie Belmont.

After living in the city, Rosie came blasting back into town like a storm. Beautiful, messy, and chaotic. And one wide-eyed, desperate plea for a job is all it takes for Ford to hire her. He vows to keep her at arm's length. Tries to stick to scowls and grumpy one-liners. But with her, verbal sparring is a type of foreplay―friction that soon turns to blistering heat.

Ford knows damn well he shouldn't cross this line. But shouldn't and can't are two very different things.

And the only thing he truly can't do is resist her.

A grumpy burnt out physician and a sunshine psychologist must fake an engagement to save his whitewater canoeing/ relationship therapy startup in Maggie North's sparkling second novel about starting over.

Burned-out former ER doc Stellar J Byrd can solve any crisis except her own life. But with her financial prospects dwindling, she’d do anything to stay in her beloved, pricey wilderness town—even take a job as a camp physician at The Love Boat, an unspeakably touchy-feely relationship therapy startup. If there are sing-alongs, she’s calling in sick.

What’s worse? Her boss is Lyle “McHuge” McHugh, the sunshiny psychologist she’s masterfully avoided since their disastrous hookup last year. Hardheaded relationship scorekeeper Stellar plans to dodge his pathological generosity from now until September, but after a scathing article puts McHuge's romantic credibility into question, a fake engagement is the only way to salvage the camp’s crumbling public image.

It’s strictly business . . . but the more closely they work together, the more Stellar realizes her feelings for McHuge are anything but professional. With competitors hard on their heels and trade secrets at stake, they must find a way to marry his softness with her steel to build a business–and a love–that will last past summer’s end . . .

Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he’s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows.

With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he’s sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement.

Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man.

Finalist for the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction
Longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Winner of the 2022 Indigenous Voices Awards' Published Prose in English Prize
Shortlisted for the 2022 Amazon Canada First Novel Award
Longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2022
Longlisted for First Nations Community Reads 2022
AnIndigo Top 100 Book of 2021
An Indigo Top 10 Best Canadian Fiction Book of 2021

****

"What a welcome debut. Young Eddie Toma's passage through the truly ugly parts of this world is met, like an antidote, or perhaps a compensation, by his remarkable awareness of its beauty. This is a writer who understands youth, and how to tell a story." —GilAdamson, winner of the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for Ridgerunner

Brian Isaac's powerful debut novel All the Quiet Places is the coming-of-age story of Eddie Toma, an Indigenous (Syilx) boy, told through the young narrator's wide-eyed observations of the world around him.

It's1956, and six-year-old Eddie Toma lives with his mother, Grace, and his little brother, Lewis, near the Salmon River on the far edge of the Okanagan Indian Reserve in the British Columbia Southern Interior. Grace, her friend Isabel, Isabel's husband Ray, and his nephew Gregory cross the border to work as summer farm labourers in Washington state. There Eddie is free to spend long days with Gregory exploring the farm: climbing a hill to watch the sunset and listening to the wind in the grass. Theboys learn from Ray's funny and dark stories. But when tragedy strikes, Eddie returns home grief-stricken, confused, and lonely.

Eddie's life is governed by the decisions of the adults around him. Grace is determined to have him learn the ways of the white world by sending him to school in the small community of Falkland. On Eddie"s first day of school, as he crosses the reserve boundary at the Salmon River bridge, he leaves behind his world. Grace challenges theIndian Agent and writes futile letters to Ottawa to protest the sparse resources in their community. His father returns to the family after years away only to bring chaos and instability. Isabel and Ray join them in an overcrowded house. Only in his grandmother's company does he find solace and true companionship.

In his teens, Eddie's future seems more secure—he finds a job, and his long-time crush on his white neighbour Eva is finally reciprocated. But every timethings look up, circumstances beyond his control crash down around him. The cumulative effects of guilt, grief, and despair threaten everything Eddie has ever known or loved.

All the Quiet Places is the story of what can happen when every adult in a person's life has been affected by colonialism; it tells of the acute separation from culture that can occur even at home in a loved familiar landscape. Its narrative power relies onthe unguarded, unsentimental witness provided by Eddie.

Aria Ramdeen is learning to love herself — and her favourite foods — again. No guilt, no toxic boyfriend. Full of newfound confidence, she subscribes to LoveinTO, a Toronto-based dating website, where she’s matched with a crush she’s had for years: the attractive light-haired man who lives in her building. Aria messages him on the app, but there’s no response, leaving her quite embarrassed.

Rob Anderson, who’s recently divorced, secretly admires Aria. He just lacks the confidence to approach her. And since he’s let his LoveinTO sub­scription lapse, he doesn’t see Aria’s message. Suddenly, Aria seems guard­ed when they run into one another, and the pair endure months of long, awkward silences together in the elevator. Until one day, Rob decides to give the app another chance and subscribes again.

A fresh and entertaining modern story of two people from different back­grounds who find each other despite the pitfalls of dating technology, opin­ions from friends and family, and their own personal trauma. The Elevator will leave readers feeling hopeful about love, food and life in a big city.

Praise for The Elevator

Aria and Rob share a look and an attraction, but their lives are complicated, and connection doesn’t come easy. The world doesn’t pause for a look, though they-and we-wish it would. The Elevator is a warm, thoughtful, realistic novel of all the things that hold us back from love, from trauma and tough parents to bad timing, but also the kind friends, humour, and hamburgers that sustain us in the search for a partner. Love comes for Rob and Aria the way it does for most of us-in the middle of everything else.— Rebecca Rosenblum, These Days are Numbered, So Much Love

In The Elevator, Ramsingh crafts a poignant portrayal of the weariness of the modern dating world, steeped with missed opportunities, misguided intimacy, and a complex relationship with food. Brimming with vivid sensory details, Ramsingh centers a cast of characters both earnest and vulnerable in this engaging, compulsively readable story.—Deepa Rajagopalan, Peacocks of Instagram

Priya Ramsingh’s superpower as a novelist is the ability to create authentic and empathetic characters. She did it with Brown Girl in the Room and now with The Elevator. I found myself rooting for Aria and Rob. I cringed as they tried to navigate the world of dating apps, agonized over bad dates and self doubt and then I eagerly awaited the next chance encounter. — Scott Colby, best-selling author and opinion page editor at the Toronto Star

Three days in a haunted mansion full of secrets. Two intrepid investigators. And one chance to solve a generations-old mystery. Beloved monster enthusiast Zed Watson returns in this charming new adventure chock-full of illusions, spirits, haunted pasts and heartwarming friendships.

Zed and Gabe are back to their treasure-hunting, literary-sleuthing ways in this spooky new adventure!

After some lacklustre cases involving lost books and a missing pet, the two friends have finally come across a mystery worth their attention: the secrets of Glyndebourne Manor, haunted home of a late, great opera designer. Every twenty-five years, the Manor hosts a challenge. You have three days and two nights to solve the puzzles in each room before the stroke of midnight. If you leave, you forfeit the game. If you solve the puzzles in time, you win a huge pile of money.

Simple enough, thinks Zed. They and Gabe are interested in all things ghoulish. And if they win, they will be able to give their friends Sam and Jo the large wedding they deserve.

There's only one problem: no one has been able to stay in the house for more than a single night.

Cue a whirlwind of scary ghosts, moving walls and cryptic letters. The two friends are going to need some help. Which means figuring out who the mysterious figure holding a crowbar is. And how to get out of a room with no doors! But thanks to Zed's fearless enthusiasm and Gabe's encyclopedic knowledge of theatre, they might be able to survive and maybe even right some past wrongs.

The OC meets The Unhoneymooners in this shipwreck romcom when the reunited cast of a hit show get stuck on a deserted island with nothing but their complete lack of survival skills, simmering drama, and the sneaking suspicion that someone is up to no good.

Agnes “Ness" Larkin has been out of the spotlight for twenty years since her quick departure from a starring role in a hit teen TV drama. When the show is tapped for a reboot, no one is more surprised than Ness that she signs on to rejoin the cast, leaving behind a normal—if not exactly thrilling—life in Toronto. Also back for round two are Libby, Ness's former best friend and soon to be makeup empire magnate, and Hayes, Ness's one-that-got-away who has risen to A-list fame (and somehow gotten even better looking) in the years she's been gone.

When they set off for filming near the Bahamas, a storm leaves the seven actors and one production assistant stranded on a small island with only an abandoned, derelict mansion to wait out the storm. But when the weather clears and a new day rises—their boat is gone too.

Stuck in a bizarre, crumbling house on an uninhabited island with possibly the most useless survival group in history, Ness and her co-stars are forced to revisit a minefield of past transgressions and come to terms with the adults they've become as they work together to ride out the storm. Or at least pretend to—they are actors, after all.

Interspersed with weather reports, fictional memoir excerpts, a dating profile and Perez-Hilton-esque blog posts, Not How I Pictured It is a rollicking novel of delightful absurdity, pithy dialogue, and no shortage of heart.

Critical Praise

"Devastatingly funny and a delight from the first page. It's smart and it made me laugh out loud over and over. In other words, I adored this book!" — Susan Juby, author of A Meditation on Murder

Not How I Pictured It was full of suspense, adventure, backstabbing old friends, middling survival skills, and best of all, a swoony second chance romance with a sexy movie star. When the entire cast of a decades old TV show gets stranded on a Caribbean Island on route to film their reboot, they have no choice but to mend their relationships and learn to work together to survive. I loved seeing Ness grow as she came to terms with her past… and wrestle with a snake! What an incredibly fun book!   — Farah Heron, Author of Jana Goes Wild and Accidentally Engaged

What if the cast of 90210 unwittingly reunited for a season of Survivor? Not How I Pictured It is fun, funny and full of drama. The perfect beach read from one of my must-read authors! — Chantel Guertin, bestselling author of Two for the Road

“Not How I Pictured It is a zany, rollicking good time with a powerful emotional reckoning at its core. Lefler grapples with fame, growing up, and what we owe the people we love, all the while keeping up the Romancing the Stone-style hijinks.” — Jenny Holiday, author of Canadian Boyfriend and Earls Trip

"Robin Lefler fires up the page with sharp wit, dazzling imagination, and pulse-jumping plot twists! Not How I Pictured It is an epic adventure romcom where top-tier tropes meet a gripping mystery. The end result is a sexy, thrilling, and at turns hilarious modern nod to Gilligan's Island. I could not put this book down." — Courtney Kae, author of In the Event of Love and In the Case of Heartbreak 

"There's no one I'd rather be trapped on a desert island with than Ness Larkin and the rest of the hilariously dysfunctional cast of Not How I Pictured It. Both a nonstop-entertaining survival romp and a heartwarming exploration of second chances, Robin Lefler's sophomore novel is a MUST for your 2024 beach bag." — Nicolas DiDomizio, author of The Gay Best Friend

"Gilligan's Island meets Gossip Girl—this is a rom com that will have you reaching for the popcorn. SO. MUCH. FUN." — Amy T. Matthews, Someone Else's Bucket List

"Lefler’s plotting is pure fun, like a reality show in novel form—especially when it becomes clear that this detour may have been no accident. Romance fans will fall in love with Ness and her insecurities and hate the designated villains (including the last person readers will suspect). This is a pleasure." — Publishers Weekly

Butler-detective Helen Thorpe returns to help a wannabe influencer get her life in order—and solve the murders of her fellow content creators—in this hilarious sequel to Mindful of Murder by bestselling author Susan Juby 

When Buddhist butler Helen Thorpe is loaned out to help Cartier Hightower get her life in order, Helen finds herself working for a young woman entirely unbound by the fetters of good taste or sound judgment. One of Cartier’s fellow content creators has recently died in a strange accident. Soon after Helen arrives, another is killed in an equally bizarre way. Cartier begins to drag Helen around on the influencer circuit, where neither of them is particularly welcome. Then comes the terrible incident at the EDM nightclub that turns Cartier into a global pariah, at least according to social media.

Helen hopes a period of simplicity and reflection and an internet detox will help Cartier find her true nature and maybe acquire some social graces. But Helen’s job gets much harder when Cartier’s friends show up at the lavish ranch where Cartier and Helen have retreated. Soon, Helen finds herself trying to avoid becoming Instafamous while bringing some peace to a girl who very much needs it. This task turns out to be even more impossible when it becomes clear that they have been followed to Weeping Creek Ranch by a murderer. 

Critical Praise

“Juby has offered a cosy mystery with a unique vibe. There’s the murder mystery aspect with its menacing undertones, but this is clearly a comedic book, with delightful humour on every page. It kept me constantly amused, and I chuckled aloud more than a few times. Then, without warning, Juby delivers a gut punch of serious pathos, building empathy for a character while hitting the reader with Buddhist dharma teaching.” — The British Columbia Review

A sweeping multi-generational story about motherhood, race and secrets in the lives of three women, perfect for readers of Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half and David Chariandy's Brother

When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, it amplifies her struggle to understand her place in the world as a woman who is half-Black and half-white, yet feels neither.

Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child, Antony, during the politically charged Jamaican Exodus of the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion—a constant and pernicious reality Evelyn watches her husband and son navigate daily.

Years later, in the aftermath of Antony's murder by the police, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in, offering young Kareela a link to the Jamaican heritage she has never fully known. Despite Violet's efforts to help them through their grief, the traumas they carry grow into a web of secrets that threatens the very family they all hold so dear.

Back in the present, Kareela, prompted by fear and uncertainty about the new life she carries, must come to terms with the mysteries surrounding her family's past and the need to make sense of both her identity and her future.

Weaving the women's stories across multiple timelines, We Rip the World Apart reveals the ways that simple choices, made in the heat of the moment and with the best of intentions, can have deeper repercussions than could ever have been imagined, especially when people remain silent.

Critical Praise

“Charlene Carr's deep dive into the complexities of race and belonging force, in the gentlest of ways, all of us to confront our own role in making the world a safer place. Carr's exploration of unresolved grief and the impact on family is one we need to hear; one we need to understand. A story of family and the decisions we make, We Rip the World Apart is a truly human exploration full of doubt, regret and most importantly, love. A remarkable story from a remarkable storyteller.” — Amanda Peters, bestselling author of The Berry Pickers

“At once intimate and epic, Charlene Carr crafts a sweeping portrait of motherhood and a woman’s right to choose across three generations of a Jamaican-Canadian family overcoming generational trauma. We Rip The World Apart explores the experiences of interracial couples and their biracial children, telling a nuanced tale of hurt and hope, all about finding yourself and your community.” — William Ping, author of Hollow Bamboo

"Charlene Carr’s eye for examining life’s most complicated spaces is at its sharpest in this frank, fearless reflection on race, identity, and parenthood. Spanning generations and brimming with family secrets, We Rip the World Apart is page-turning and propulsive, heartbreaking and hopeful in turn. An important and necessary book that will stay with me for a long time.” — Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures

"The novel has the raw feel of a protest, while retaining the heart that sees a family to keep trying to connect despite generations of trauma. Moving, intelligent and complex, it deftly explores our struggle to understand even those who are closest to us, the different types of violence we perpetrate on one another, the identities we fight against and the ones we choose to project, and the different ways in which we cope and respond, despite our uncertainty that any of our choices are the correct ones....[A]t times a raised fist, at others a much needed embrace." — Craig Shreve, author of The African Samurai

"For fans of Britt Bennet’s The Vanishing Half and Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake, Charlene Carr’s latest is both a charged emotional epic and a gentle exploration of the nuances of love. Motherhood, autonomy, race, politics, grief—every brushstroke works to paint a complex and important picture of the world as it is, and as it could be. This novel is sure to inspire book club discussion and personal reflection, and to stay on your mind long after the final page is turned. Truly a can’t-miss read!" — Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky