THE OTTAWA REVIEW OF BOOKS

We hope that this issue might sway your Christmas purchases. Topping our list is The Ghost Garden by Susan Doherty. Winner of the prestigious Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, the novel is a masterpiece. We reviewed The Ghost Garden in the February 2019 issue of the...

The Ottawa Review of Books' Caroline Vu interviews award-winning Montreal writer, Susan Doherty, in this month's issue.

CV: Congratulations, Susan on winning the Quebec Writers' Federation Non-Fiction Prize for The Ghost Garden! The book has been translated into...

Reviewed by Ian Thomas Shaw

If literary fiction should be primarily interpretative, with its core purpose to help the readers understand the world around them, then The Daughter's Story by debut novelist Murielle Cyr is a brilliant example of this genre. Driven by a wel...

Reviewed by Sonia Saikaley

Have you ever felt completely drawn to a story to the point that you imagine being there with the characters, especially the protagonist? Anita Kushwaha’s award-winning novel Side by Side is one such story that draws you from page to page with...

Reviewed by Menaka Raman-Wilms

Different Beasts is a book that is both captivating and memorable. It’s a collection of short stories that feature a wide variety of different characters in unique circumstances. Running throughout the book is the common theme of beasts: s...

Reviewed by Wendy Hawkin

In his latest crime novel, Vancouver author, Dietrich Kalteis, offers a nail biter as dark and gritty as a Kansas duster. The story would seem apocalyptic were it not set in 1930s America. A wind of sympathy buffets the underdogs as they try to...

In November, emerging writers from across the world strike out to produce their first novels as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Canada also learns who wins the Giller Prize, the country's most coveted literary award. These are the two bookends of the...

Reviewed by Ian Thomas Shaw

I met Bill Arnott at an Indigo book signing in Vancouver. He had discovered me through my copious Facebook postings about the first leg of my cross-country book tour. Tall and blue-eyed with an infectious smile, Bill could very well have been...

Reviewed by Timothy Niedermann

Mad Hatter is an impressive, emotional, disturbing, and, finally, extremely rewarding novel. Author Amanda Hale emphasizes in her Afterword that her book, though based on real events in her family, is fiction: it “is my father’s story, as...

Reviewed by Ian Thomas Shaw

Ottawa writer Susan Taylor Meehan's latest novel is a beautiful account of the clash between socialist ideals and Canadian conservatism in the 1930s. Her setting is the fictitious town of Halcyon, Saskatchewan, a small farming community hit h...