Stay home? Sure.
These new books take you in all directions.
By Hattie Klotz
The range of my reactions to lockdown and global upheaval has been hard to define. Safe to say it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. One day I’ll crave escapism, the next a good dose of reality. Here are books for every state of mind—books in which to lose yourself, others to keep you abreast of current discourse on subjects that matter. There’s some history, too, along with several good reads by Ottawa writers.
Dark August
Katie Tallo
HarperCollins
With Dark August, Ottawa-based screenwriter and director Katie Tallo has turned her hand to novels. This dense thriller will take you on another sort of rollercoaster altogether, one that moves through the sights and sounds of Ottawa and the Rideau Lakes. If you know the region, you’ll recognize city landmarks and country towns as you follow Gus, a 20-year-old orphan with a murky family past to uncover. Thanks to plenty of twists and even more surprises, Dark August is an engaging, confident debut that compels you to read on, and on.
Songs for the End of the World
Saleema Nawaz
Penguin Random House
In this eerily prescient novel, Montreal writer Saleema Nawaz weaves the tales of several characters struggling through a novel coronavirus pandemic. The book was written between 2013 and 2019, and its publication was brought forward given world events. It’s a must-read for anybody who likes to keep their reading grounded in reality.
Songs for the End of the World offers us a deep-dive into how we all react differently to extreme life pressures, and seeks to answer the question: Does something like this bring out the worst in us, or the best? It’s poignant, at times sad, but ultimately concludes it’s our actions that matter.
A Family Affair
Nadine Bismuth
House of Anansi
In this eerily prescient novel, Montreal writer Saleema Nawaz weaves the tales of several characters struggling through a novel coronavirus pandemic. The book was written between 2013 and 2019, and its publication was brought forward given world events. It’s a must-read for anybody who likes to keep their reading grounded in reality.
Songs for the End of the World offers us a deep-dive into how we all react differently to extreme life pressures, and seeks to answer the question: Does something like this bring out the worst in us, or the best? It’s poignant, at times sad, but ultimately concludes it’s our actions that matter.
Mission Road
Ron Corbett
ECW Press
This is the third book in a series that follows the investigations of Frank Yakabuski, a detective working in Springfield, a rugged town set on the Northern Divide. A story of missing diamonds, gangs and brutal murder, Mission Road is a mystery with sympathetic characters and a deep, authentic sensibility for nature and landscape. Corbett is an Ottawa-based author, journalist and broadcaster who received an Edgar nomination from the Crime Writers of America for the first novel in this series, Ragged Lake. And while it’s ideal to have read the two previous books, Corbett gives readers a one-paragraph review of the important facts near the beginning of Mission Road, which means you can dive right into a story that will have you reading late into the night.
The Last Goldfish
Anita Lahey
Biblioasis
In this touching memoir about friendship and death, Ottawa writer Anita Lahey tells her story of the life and loss of her closest childhood friend, at age 22, to cancer. Deeply personal and empathetic, this is the telling of the tiny calibrations in a relationship that make it profound, that make friends family. Lahey captures the emotional nuances of adolescent joy and the extended pain of growing up alongside someone who is dying when you become aware you will likely live. It’s a deeply honest book that will make you laugh and cry.
A Year at the Circus
Jon Sopel
Penguin Random House
As the BBC’s North America editor, Jon Sopel has a unique position: he’s an insider with media access to the White House, but as a Brit he’s a cultural outsider. Here, he takes a wry look at the Trump Whitehouse. If, like me, you’re addicted to the reality television show that’s masquerading as politics, then you’ll find A Year at the Circus to be a riveting piece of media and political gossip. “There is a never-ending source of palace intrigue as the latest hero to enter the administration becomes a zero and is ushered out of the door, usually with a knife protruding from his or her back,” writes Sopel.
War: How Conflict Shaped Us
Margaret MacMillan
Penguin Random House
Two books about war, by Canada’s pre-eminent historians, serve to remind us the legacy of conflict is passed down through generations. In The Fight for History by Canadian War Museum military historian Tim Cook, Canada’s ambivalence to its role in the Second World War is explained. “It was not only distrustful politicians, but also many Canadians who were uninterested in celebrating or commemorating Canada’s role in the Second World War,” he writes. However, “Canada’s commitment to winning, whatever the cost to its citizens, forever changed the trajectory of the nation.”
The Fight for History
Tim Cook
War: How Conflict Shaped Us takes a wider view of all wars and why war is important to us today. “As a historian I firmly believe that we have to include war in our study of human history if we are to make any sense of the past. War’s effects have been so profound that to leave it out is to ignore one of the great forces, along with geography, resources, economics, ideas, and social and political changes, which have shaped human development and changed history,” Margaret MacMillan.
