We face strange times as a deadly virus crawls through our communities, challenging the resilience of health systems and the continuity of our economies. Undoubtedly, this will inspire many books, both fact and fiction. The world is much larger though than this current crisis, and there is perhaps a no better time to explore it through literature. This month, the core team of reviewers at the Ottawa Review of Books is pleased to offer you our takes on recent works of fiction by four Canadian writers, including two from Ottawa itself. We hope you enjoy these reviews of Anita Kushwaha's Secret Lives of Mothers & Daughters, Jerry Levy's The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness, Randall Denley's Spiked and Kelley Armstrong's Alone in the Wild.