TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE, A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE, QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL, BIG MEN FEAR ME, and more: Latest Reviews and Interviews!

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IN THE NEWS!

TRY NOT TO BE STRANGE

Try No to Be Strange by Michael Hingston (September 13, 2022) has been reviewed by Robert J. Wiersema in the Toronto Star. The review was posted online on September 16, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Wiersema writes,

“That spirit, the tongue-in-cheek mock seriousness of the whole endeavour, and the playfulness of its participants, is a keen factor in Try Not to Be Strange. The book is a delightful reading experience, utterly unexpected and unlike anything you are likely to read this year.”

Try Not to Be Strange was also reviewed by Kevin Hardcastle in Quill and Quire on September 16, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Hardcastle writes,

“Try Not to Be Strange is a passionate and skillfully written exploration of an extraordinary world and those who search for such places to get to the heart of what stories really mean. Hingston’s thirst for deeper knowledge is palpable, and it illuminates what the kingdom might really stand for.”

Grab your copy of Try Not to Be Strange here!

 

A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE

A Factotum in the Book Trade by Marius Kociejowski (April 26, 2022) has been reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada by Jessica Dunn Wolfe. The article, “Whims and Longings” was published online on September 12, 2022. Read the full article here.

Wolfe writes,

“A Factotum in the Book Trade displays the prose style of someone who takes inordinate delight in the unlikely conjunctions afforded by such places. Kociejowski pinpoints the joys of bookstores for readers and booksellers both, while sketching a miscellany of the personalities he has encountered throughout his career.”

Grab your copy of A Factotum in the Book Trade here!

QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL

Querelle of Roberval (August 2, 2022) by Kevin Lambert, trans. by Donald Winkler, has been shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize! The shortlist was announced at 10 am ET on September 14, 2022. You can read the full shortlist here.

The judges’ citation for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize:

“Kevin Lambert’s fearless novel is a profane, funny, bleak, touching, playful, and outrageous satire of sexual politics, labour, and capitalism. In ecstatic and cutting prose, it gleefully illuminates both the broad socio-political tensions of life in a Quebec company town and the intimate details of sex, lust, loneliness, and gay relationships in such a place. Like its central character, the book is brash, beautiful, quasi-mythic, and tragic. Most improbably, for all its daring and provocation, Querelle of Roberval is lyrically, even tenderly written.”

Querelle of Roberval has also been reviewed by Aaron Obedkoff in the Literary Review of Canada. The review was published online on September 12, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Obedkoff calls Lambert

“a skilled examiner of depravity … Lambert’s excavation into the depths of desire and provocation is as thrilling as it is disturbing, as beautiful as it is revolting. This is a difficult balance to manage, yet it may well be the key to his success.”

Pick up your copy of Querelle of Roberval here!

BIG MEN FEAR ME

Big Men Fear Me by Mark Bourrie (October 18, 2022) has been reviewed in the October issue of the Literary Review of Canada by Dave Marks Shribman. The review is online as of September 12, 2022. Check out the full review here.

Shribman writes,

“Mark Bourrie’s remarkable—and long overdue—biography of one of the most consequential and least remembered Canadians of the past century. … Bourrie toiled for years to resurrect [George McCullagh], but, I’m glad to say, he did not wipe away the carbuncles, boils, and blisters. His portrait of a man who once was among Canada’s most powerful figures is, to choose two apt terms, both melancholy and masterly.”

Big Men Fear Me was also included by Nathaniel G. Moore in the Miramichi Reader’s ‘Fall Preview Part Two’! The list was published on September 5, 2022. Check out the full preview here.

Moore writes,

“If you love Mad Men and Netflix biopics about ruthless tie-wearing maniacs, if you’re wanting the fourth wall to come crashing down on a discussion about class and poverty … you’ll probably need to pick up [Big Men Fear Me] from Biblioasis.”

Order your copy of Big Men Fear Me here!

THIS TIME, THAT PLACE

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories by Clark Blaise (October 18, 2022) has been reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada. The review was published in print on September 12, 2022.

An excerpt from the review,

“The adolescent yo-yo takes many forms in This Time, That Place (Biblioasis), which recalls an old cigar box filled with undated and often cryptic postcards. […] Individually or as a group, these loosely linked stories will reward multiple readings.”

Grab your copy of This Time, That Place here!

ORDINARY WONDER TALES

Emily Urquhart, author of Ordinary Wonder Tales (November 1, 2022), has been interviewed by Joan Sullivan in the The Newfoundland Quarterly! The interview was published on September 16, 2022. Read the full interview here.

Urquhart says in the interview,

“Our most personal fears, the worries that visit us in our waking night hours, are not new. We feel as if they are specific to us and our lives but once you regain some of your logic in the daylight hours, you can turn to the wisdom in the world’s great folklore bank and discover a story that might help you to understand your most confusing and difficult fears, or, if not understand these fears, at least let you know that you aren’t alone.”

Ordinary Wonder Tales was also included by Nathaniel G. Moore in the Miramichi Reader’s ‘Fall Preview Part Two’! The list was published on September 5, 2022. Check out the full preview here.

Moore writes,

“Ordinary Wonder Tales will have readers conjuring up memories of their first encounters with fairy tales, fables, and storytelling … if you’re compelled to imagine the mysterious forgotten worlds of imagination, of fables and possibilities … pick up [this book].”

Order your copy of Ordinary Wonder Tales here!

SHIMMER

Shimmer by Alex Pugsley (May 17, 2022) was reviewed in the Miramichi Reader. The review was published online on September 11, 2022. Read the full review here.

Heidi Greco writes,

“His greatest gift as a writer is, I believe, his ability to carry dialogue … a brave departure from the highly-praised Aubrey McKee.“

Pick up your copy of Shimmer here!

CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH

Pauline Holdstock‘s forthcoming novel, Confessions With Keith (September 20, 2022) was featured as an editor’s fall pick on 49th Shelf! The article was published online on September 14, 2022.

You can read the full article here.

Pick up your copy of Confessions With Keith here!

QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize!

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We’re thrilled to share that Querelle of Roberval by Kevin Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler (August 2, 2022) is a finalist for the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction!

The shortlist was announced at 10AM ET on September 14, 2022. You can read the full shortlist here.

The judges’ citation states: “Kevin Lambert’s fearless novel is a profane, funny, bleak, touching, playful, and outrageous satire of sexual politics, labour, and capitalism. In ecstatic and cutting prose, it gleefully illuminates both the broad socio-political tensions of life in a Quebec company town and the intimate details of sex, lust, loneliness, and gay relationships in such a place. Like its central character, the book is brash, beautiful, quasi-mythic, and tragic. Most improbably, for all its daring and provocation, Querelle of Roberval is lyrically, even tenderly written.”

Publisher Dan Wells said this about the shortlisting: “I am so pleased for Kevin, and for Don Winkler, Querelle‘s exceptional translator, and grateful to the Writers’ Trust jury for understanding that the novel’s various discomforts, savage as some of them may be, are always perfectly aligned to the book’s spirit and purpose. This is classic tragedy with a twist, and I’m thrilled that this nomination will help us bring Kevin’s and Don’s work to a wider range of readers than might otherwise have been the case.”

Named in honour of Writers’ Trust co-founders and literary couple Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, who started the organization in 1976 with the help of a few fellow writers and an aim to encourage a Canadian literary culture at home, the Atwood Gibson Prize recognizes writers of exceptional talent for the best novel or short story collection of the year.

The finalists are selected by a three-member, independent judging panel and the $60,000 winner is announced at the annual Writers’ Trust Awards. The award is generously funded by Canadian businessman and philanthropist Jim Balsillie.

Grab your copy of Querelle of Roberval here!

ABOUT QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL

Shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

Homage to Jean Genet’s antihero and a brilliant reimagining of the ancient form of tragedy, Querelle of Roberval, winner of the Marquis de Sade Prize, is a wildly imaginative story of justice, passion, and murderous revenge.

Credit: Gregory Augendre-Cambron

As a millworkers’ strike in the northern lumber town of Roberval drags on, tensions start to escalate between the workers—but when a lockout renews their solidarity, they rally around the mysterious and magnetic influence of Querelle, a dashing newcomer from Montreal. Strapping and unabashed, likeable but callow, by day he walks the picket lines and at night moves like a mythic Adonis through the ranks of young men who flock to his apartment for sex. As the dispute hardens and both sides refuse to yield, sand stalls the gears of the economic machine and the tinderbox of class struggle and entitlement ignites in a firestorm of passions carnal and violent. Trenchant social drama, a tribute to Jean Genet’s antihero, and a brilliant reimagining of the ancient form of tragedy, Querelle of Roberval, winner of France’s Marquis de Sade Prize, is a wildly imaginative story of justice, passion, and murderous revenge.

ABOUT KEVIN LAMBERT

Born in 1992, Kevin Lambert grew up in Chicoutimi, Quebec. He earned a master’s degree in creative writing at the Université de Montréal. His widely acclaimed first novel, You Will Love What You Have Killed, was a finalist for Quebec’s Booksellers’ Prize. His second novel, Querelle of Roberval, won France’s Marquis de Sade Prize, and was a finalist for the prestigious Prix Médicis and the literary prize of the Paris newspaper Le Monde. In Canada, Querelle of Roberval won the Prix Ringuet of the Quebec Academy of Arts and Letters, was a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal and won or was a finalist for six other literary prizes. Kevin Lambert lives in Montreal.

ABOUT DONALD WINKLER

Donald Winkler is a translator of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. He is a three-time winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for French-to-English translation. He lives in Montreal.

A Farewell to Richard Sanger

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It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Richard Sanger, Biblioasis poet, friend and bon vivant. We knew that this moment was approaching: Richard had been working the last few months with his editor, Vanessa Stauffer, to prepare the manuscript of his final collection of poems, Way to Go, delivering it only last week. He remained himself to the very end: playful, enthusiastic, devilish. At one point, after making yet another death joke, he stopped and asked us if he was making us uncomfortable: he couldn’t help it, he told us, he found his own impending demise somewhat ridiculous. He kept laughing, and making others laugh, right to the end. We will miss that spirit, and his kindness, generosity and sharp-edged intelligence. And we will miss celebrating the launch of Way to Go in his person, raising a glass or three, though we take some solace in knowing that this book exists and he was able to get it where he wanted it to be, and that we will one day soon be able to share it with all of you who loved him, and hopefully a few more besides.

—Dan Wells

 

To honour Richard, we thought we’d share one of our favourite poems from his forthcoming collection, about the joy of movement and embellishment and friendship:

November Run

for Harold Hoefle

I read your letter, Harold,
as one nurse describes her new dessert
—rice krispie squares, peanut butter, chocolate—
to another who hooks me up to my IV drip
and I want nothing more than to go
for a run with you as wild
and muddy and unpredictable
as your letter, a long November run
to commemorate the races we never ran
against each other, the OFSAAs we never placed;
I want to head off hanging on your shoulder
—light-footed, loose-limbed, easy-breathing—
as you lead the way along the gravel shoulder
of the highway out of town, past the 7-Eleven,
the gas station, the monster homes,
then cut off down a path into the woods
and up whatever kind of hills you have
in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, or pastures
overgrown with sumac, I suppose,
or maybe we’d go for a run in the Gatineau,
why not, hell, up and down those ski trails,
over branches and rocks and puddles and streams
when there are still a few leaves
left on the hardwoods and also perhaps
a few precocious snowflakes in the air
appearing like over-keen students
to try their luck and melt on contact
as our cheeks and thighs redden,
and now you hang on my shoulder
as I lead the way, taking you on, pressing the pace
until we fall into a rhythm, brisk, mechanical,
each of our bodies telling the other’s
I can do this all I want, I can cream you,
our bones and sinews making themselves known
shedding all superfluous weight and thought,
as we run those Gatineau trails and this steep slope
and I attack, putting my forehead into it,
pumping my arms, thinking now I can do it,
administer the coup de grâce,
and leave you in the dust . . . No such luck.
At the crest, you’re still with me, surprise,
and so we head back, lungs panting, thighs aching,
letting our legs freewheel as fast as they can,
you ahead of me, or me ahead of you
breathing down my neck, laughing,
ready to pick me off and whoosh past
to the chalet where there’ll be showers and beer,
some women who’ll understand our jokes,
who’ll ooh and ahh over our mud-spattered calves,
and tell us we’re full of shit, if necessary,
and a roaring fire to get roaring drunk beside
as we proceed to purify the dialect of the tribe
and forge in the exuberance of our talk
the only lightly embellished story of our race.

ON TIME AND WATER longlisted for the NATIONAL TRANSLATION AWARD!

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On Time and Water coverWe’re thrilled to share that On Time and Water (March 30, 2021) by Andri Snær Magnason, translated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith, was longlisted for the 2022 National Translation Award! Check out the full list of nominees here.

The NTA, which is administered by ALTA, is the only national award for translated fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction that includes a rigorous examination of both the source text and its relation to the finished English work. Featuring authors writing in 14 different languages, this year’s longlists expand the prize’s dedication to literary diversity in English. The selection criteria include the quality of the finished English language book, and the quality of the translation. This year’s prose judges are Suzanne Jill Levine, Arunava Sinha, and Annie Tucker.

The winning translators will receive a $2,500 cash prize each. The awards will be announced at ALTA’s annual awards ceremony, which in 2022 will be held virtually. The awards ceremony will air on October 6, 2022 on ALTA’s Eventbrite page; this event is free and open to the public.

Order your copy of On Time and Water here!

ABOUT ON TIME AND WATER

Finalist for the 2021 Nordic Council Literature Prize • A Winnipeg Free Press Top Read of 2021

Asked by a leading climate scientist why he wasn’t writing about the greatest crisis mankind has faced, Andri Snær Magnason, one of Iceland’s most beloved writers and public intellectuals, protested: he wasn’t a specialist, he said. It wasn’t his field. But the scientist persisted: “If you cannot understand our scientific findings and present them in an emotional, psychological, poetic or mythological context,” he told him, “then no one will really understand the issue, and the world will end.”

Based on interviews and advice from leading glacial, ocean, climate, and geographical scientists, and interwoven with personal, historical, and mythological stories, Magnason’s resulting response is a rich and compelling work of narrative nonfiction that illustrates the reality of climate change and offers hope in the face of an uncertain future. Moving from reflections on how one writes an obituary for a glacier to exhortation for a heightened understanding of human time and our obligations to one another, throughout history and across the globe, On Time and Water is both deeply personal and globally minded: a travel story, a world history, a desperate plea to live in harmony with future generations—and is unlike anything that has yet been published on the current climate emergency.

ABOUT ANDRI SNÆR MAGNASON

Andri Snær Magnason is one of Iceland’s most celebrated writers. He has won the Icelandic Literary Prize for fiction, children’s fiction, and non-fiction. In 2009, Magnason co-directed the documentary Dreamland, which was based on his book Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation. In 2010, Magnason was awarded the Kairos Prize, presented to outstanding individuals in the field of intercultural understanding. Magnason ran for president of Iceland in 2016 and came third out of nine candidates.

ABOUT LYTTON SMITH

Lytton Smith is a poet, professor, and translator from the Icelandic. His most recent translations include works by Kristin Ómarsdóttir, Jón Gnarr, Ófeigur Sigurðsson, and Guðbergur Bergsson. His most recent poetry collection, The All-Purpose Magical Tent, was published by Nightboat. Having earned his MFA and PhD from Columbia University, he currently teaches at SUNY Geneseo.

ON PROPERTY nominated for the HERITAGE TORONTO BOOK AWARD!

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Book cover for Rinaldo Walcott's On Property. Features the author's name and title at the top with "Field Notes" written on the side vertically. Overlapping the title is a security camera.We’re excited to share that Rinaldo Walcott’s On Property (February 2, 2021) has been nominated for the 2022 Heritage Toronto Book Award! Check out the full list of nominees here.

Since 1974, the Heritage Toronto Awards have celebrated individuals, organizations, and the projects they create. The annual ceremony brings together these extraordinary nominees and city influencers from across its culture, development, and policy-making communities. The Heritage Toronto Book Award aims to highlight the breadth and depth of the Greater Toronto Area’s heritage, covering topics from medical discoveries, to sports history to Indigenous reconciliation. The book jury assesses nominees based on the criteria of advocacy, scholarship, education, and production value.

The winner will be announced at the 47th Annual Heritage Toronto Awards event, which will be held on Monday, October 17th at The Carlu (444 Yonge Street) beginning at 5:30PM ET.

Tickets for the gala are available to purchase here.

Get your copy of On Property here!

 

Photo Credit: Abdi Osman

ABOUT ON PROPERTY

From plantation rebellion to prison labour’s super-exploitation, Walcott examines the relationship between policing and property.

That a man can lose his life for passing a fake $20 bill when we know our economies are flush with fake money says something damning about the way we’ve organized society. Yet the intensity of the calls to abolish the police after George Floyd’s death surprised almost everyone. What, exactly, does abolition mean? How did we get here? And what does property have to do with it? In On Property, Rinaldo Walcott explores the long shadow cast by slavery’s afterlife and shows how present-day abolitionists continue the work of their forebears in service of an imaginative, creative philosophy that ensures freedom and equality for all. Thoughtful, wide-ranging, compassionate, and profound, On Property makes an urgent plea for a new ethics of care.

ABOUT RINALDO WALCOTT

Rinaldo Walcott is a Professor in the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. His research is in the area of Black Diaspora Cultural Studies, gender and sexuality.

CASE STUDY, ESTATES LARGE AND SMALL, THIS TIME THAT PLACE: New York Times, CBC, and other media hits!

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IN THE NEWS!

THIS TIME, THAT PLACE

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories by Clark Blaise (November 8, 2022) has been featured in the New York Times. The article was published on August 5, 2022.

The New York Times writes,

“This collection of 24 stories presents a life’s work by the Canadian American author and paints a restless, uneasy portrait of society at the turn of the 21st century.”

Check out the full list here.

Get your copy of This Time, That Place here!

CASE STUDY

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been reviewed in Kirkus Reviews. The review was published online on July 27, 2022. Read the full review here.

Kirkus writes,

“A provocative send-up of midcentury British mores and the roots of modern psychotherapy … brisk and engaging.”

Case Study has also been longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize on July 26, and shortlisted for the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize on August 3!

View the Booker longlist here, and the Gordon Burn shortlist here.

Preorder Case Study here!

ESTATES LARGE AND SMALL

Estates Large and Small (August 16, 2022) by Ray Robertson was featured on a CBC Books list highlighting ’27 Canadian books we can’t wait to read in August.’ The list was published online on August 3, 2022. You can see the full list here.

The book was also featured on a list of bookseller recommendations by 49th Shelf. That list was published online on July 30, 2022 and is available here.

In his 49th Shelf recommendation, bookseller David Worsley writes,

“Ray Robertson has an unwavering morality and like a lot of smart people, he’s really, really funny. This is my favorite of the year so far.”

An interview with Ray Robertson was published on Open Book on August 4, 2022. You can read the full interview here.

Ahead of the interview, Open Book editors write,

“A funny, thoughtful, and heartbreaking love letter to the power of books and reading, Estates Large and Small is Robertson doing what he does best—asking probing questions about why and how we can best live and understand ourselves and one another.”

Get your copy of Estates Large and Small here!

CASE STUDY shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize!

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We’re excited to share that Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been shortlisted for the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize! Check out the full shortlist here.

The Gordon Burn Prize judges statement:

“A twisting and often wickedly humorous work of crime fiction that meditates on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself.”

Case Study was published in the UK in 2021, and has received wide acclaim since its release. The novel has been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly International Crime Prize, and more recently longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

Biblioasis is a literary press based in Windsor, Ontario. Since 2004 we have published the best in contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and literature in translation.

The Gordon Burn Prize was launched in 2012 to remember the late author of novels including Fullalove and Born Yesterday: The News as a Novel, and non-fiction including Happy Like Murderers: The Story of Fred and Rosemary West and Best and Edwards: Football, Fame and Oblivion. The prize is run in partnership by the Gordon Burn Trust, New Writing North, Faber & Faber and Durham Book Festival, and seeks to celebrate the writing of those whose work follows in his footsteps. The winner will be announced on October 13, and will receive a cheque for £5,000 and be offered the opportunity to undertake a writing retreat of up to three months at Gordon Burn’s cottage in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders.

Preorder your copy of Case Study here!

ABOUT CASE STUDY

Shortlisted for the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize • Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022

The Booker-shortlisted author of His Bloody Project blurs the lines between patient and therapist, fiction and documentation, and reality and dark imagination. 

London, 1965. An unworldly young woman believes that a charismatic psychotherapist, Collins Braithwaite, has driven her sister to suicide. Intent on confirming her suspicions, she assumes a false identity and presents herself to him as a client, recording her experiences in a series of notebooks. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything. Even her own character.

In Case Study, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents these notebooks interspersed with his own biographical research into Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling—and often wickedly humorous—meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

ABOUT GRAEME MACRAE BURNET

Graeme Macrae Burnet is among Scotland’s leading contemporary novelists. Best known for his dazzling Booker-shortlisted second novel, His Bloody Project (2015), he is also the author of two Simenon-influenced novels: The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau (2014) and The Accident on the A35 (2017). Burnet has appeared at literary festivals in Australia, the USA, Germany, India, Russia, Spain, France, Korea, Denmark and Estonia. His novels have been translated into more than twenty languages and achieved bestseller status in several countries. He lives and works in Glasgow.

QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL, THE BARRØY CHRONICLES, A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE, CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH, SHIMMER: Reviews and Features!

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IN THE NEWS

QUERELLE OF ROBERVAL

Querelle of Roberval (August 2, 2022) by Kevin Lambert, trans. by Donald Winkler has been reviewed in the Toronto Star! The review was posted online on July 28, 2022. You can read the full review here.

Reviewer Bret Josef Grubisic writes,

“Febrile, postmodern to the bone and unexpectedly affecting, the novel is a startling, mile-a-minute performance.”

Get your copy of Querelle of Roberval here!

THE BARRØY CHRONICLES

A piece was published in the Globe and Mail about Roy Jacobsen and the books in The Barrøy Chronicles (The Unseen, White Shadow, and Eyes of the Rigel). The piece was published online on July 23, 2022, and was included in the print edition of the weekend paper. You can read the full piece here.
Jacobsen spoke on the importance of history:
“Without history, without memory, people probably will make the wrong choices in the future, that is the philosophical background of the whole series … But the most important part is that, of course, my obligation to where I come from, my parents, and to think about how important memory or history is for present-day life. I have a saying: Every historical novel is a contemporary novel in disguise.”
Translator Don Bartlett said this, on the writing in the next book in the series, Only A Mother:
“In one sentence you can have a question, an answer, a statement, the authorial voice and more, all separated by commas and extending over a paragraph. I haven’t translated any other author who writes like this.”
Start the series with The Unseen here!
Get your copy of White Shadow here!
Get your copy of Eyes of the Rigel here!

A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE

A Factotum in the Book Trade by Marius Kociejowski (April 26, 2022) has been featured by Zoomer Magazine as one of their “8 New Titles for Book Lovers.” The list was published online on July 20, 2022.

Read the full list here.

Get your copy of A Factotum in the Book Trade here!

CONFESSIONS WITH KEITH

Pauline Holdstock‘s forthcoming novel, Confessions With Keith (September 6, 2022) was included in the 49th Shelf Fall Fiction Preview! The list was published online on July 11, 2022.

You can see the full list here.

Preorder your copy of Confessions with Keith here!

SHIMMER

Alex Pugsley, author of Shimmer (May 17, 2022), put together a reading list for 49th Shelf highlighting books that helped shape him as a reader and writer, and that hold significance in his life. The list was published online on July 21, 2022.

You can see the full list here.

Pick up your copy of Shimmer here!

CASE STUDY longlisted for the BOOKER PRIZE!

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We’re excited to share that Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (November 1, 2022) has been longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize! Check out the full longlist here.

The 2022 Booker judges on Case Study: “A mystery story—or is it?—that takes us into the heart of the psychoanalytical consulting room. Or does it? Interleaving a biography of radical ‘60s ‘untherapist’ Collins Braithwaite with the notebooks of his patient ‘Rebecca’, a young woman seeking answers about the death of her sister, ‘GMB’ presents a forensic, elusive and mordantly funny text(s) layered with questions about authenticity and the self.”

“We’re delighted to be the North American publishers of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Case Study, a fabulously playful novel of psychological intrigue that kept us guessing from the first pages through to the last,” says Dan Wells, owner and publisher of Biblioasis. “A joyful puzzle of a book, brilliant and funny, it’s no surprise to us that it has made the Booker longlist: our congratulations go out to Graeme, and we look forward to introducing readers to the world of Collins Braithwaite and Rebecca Smyth (or whoever she may in fact be).”

Case Study is Macrae Burnet’s second book to be recognized by the Booker Prize. His novel His Bloody Project was shortlisted in 2015. This is also Biblioasis’ second book that has made the Booker longlist in the past four years, the first being Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann in 2019.

Case Study was published in the UK in 2021, and has received wide acclaim since its release. The novel was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and shortlisted for the Ned Kelly International Crime Prize.

Biblioasis is a literary press based in Windsor, Ontario. Since 2004 we have published the best in contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and literature in translation. For more information please visit our website, biblioasis.com

The Booker Prize was first awarded in 1969. Its aim was to stimulate the reading and discussion of contemporary fiction. The shortlist will be announced on September 6, 2022, and the winner will be announced on October 17, 2022. Congratulations and best of luck to Graeme!

Preorder your copy of Case Study here!

ABOUT CASE STUDY

Longlisted for the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize • Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022

The Booker-shortlisted author of His Bloody Project blurs the lines between patient and therapist, fiction and documentation, and reality and dark imagination. 

London, 1965. An unworldly young woman believes that a charismatic psychotherapist, Collins Braithwaite, has driven her sister to suicide. Intent on confirming her suspicions, she assumes a false identity and presents herself to him as a client, recording her experiences in a series of notebooks. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything. Even her own character.

In Case Study, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents these notebooks interspersed with his own biographical research into Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling—and often wickedly humorous—meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

ABOUT GRAEME MACRAE BURNET

Graeme Macrae Burnet is among Scotland’s leading contemporary novelists. Best known for his dazzling Booker-shortlisted second novel, His Bloody Project (2015), he is also the author of two Simenon-influenced novels: The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau (2014) and The Accident on the A35 (2017). Burnet has appeared at literary festivals in Australia, the USA, Germany, India, Russia, Spain, France, Korea, Denmark and Estonia. His novels have been translated into more than twenty languages and achieved bestseller status in several countries. He lives and works in Glasgow.

CHEMICAL VALLEY, SHIMMER, EYES OF THE RIGEL: Reviews and Interviews!

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IN THE NEWS

CHEMICAL VALLEY

Chemical Valley cover

David Huebert, author of Chemical Valley (October 19, 2021), has been interviewed by Jeffrey Dupuis in the The Quarantine Review! The interview was published in their print edition on July 20, 2022. You can read the full interview on pg. 30 here.

In the interview, David says,

“Environmental subjects are polarizing and tend to get reduced through the discourses of climate martyrdom and sensationalism. […] I try not to reduce things to Good and Evil; I seek to focus instead on mess, entanglement, convolution, and complication. I think that’s a truer approach, and it’s one that suits the leaky metaphorics of oils and swamps, what I think of, sometimes, as the dank.”

Order your copy of Chemical Valley here!

SHIMMER

Shimmer (May 17, 2022) by Alex Pugsley was featured on The Quarantine Review‘s ‘Summertime Reading Hotlist’! Check out the list here.

The Quarantine Review on Shimmer:
“There is something very intimate, very personal about these stories that remind us of the power held by a good collection of stories. We not only see the author’s growth as a stylist, but also witness the growth and transformation, or failure to grow, of the characters. Pugsley gives us windows into lives that are both familiar and yet distant, exploring them within the limits of the form. Shimmer is a great collection for fans of short stories looking for a summer read that will stick with them through the changing seasons.”
Get your copy of Shimmer here!

EYES OF THE RIGEL

Eyes of the Rigel (April 5, 2022) by Roy Jacobsen also appeared on The Quarantine Review‘s ‘Summertime Reading Hotlist’! Check out the list here.

The Quarantine Review on Eyes of the Rigel:

“Jacobsen’s novel, both epic and intimate, takes us on a journey through a world in the process of rebuilding, a world of uncertainty that has a familiar feeling to many of us as we emerge from the pandemic. This translation by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw has beautiful rhythms and reads like an elegy. It is a great read for someone looking to be transported to another time and place and feel like they experienced it.”

Get your copy of Eyes of the Rigel here!

Check out the first two books in the series here!