The Sisters Brothers meets Master and Commander in Robert Hough’s rollicking and raucous new historical novel.The year is 1664, and Benny Wand, a young thief and board game hustler, is arrested in London for illegal gaming. Deported to the city of Port Royal, Jamaica, known as “the wickedest city on earth,” Wand is forced by his depleted circumstances to join a raid on the Spanish city of Villahermosa. The mission is a perilous success, and Wand attracts the atten...

Meet the Tiger Queen—in this "extravagantly entertaining" novel based on the wild life of the famous animal trainer and circus celebrity ( The Boston Globe).In the 1920s, during the golden age of the big top, Mabel Stark was the superstar of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and one of America's most eccentric and unlikely celebrities. A tiny, curvaceous Kentucky blonde in a white leather bodysuit, Mabel was brazen, sexually adventurous, an...

In this compelling novel, acclaimed author Robert Hough recreates the political violence and revolutionary idealism that flowed through New York City during the Gilded Age of the 1890s. At its centre are real-life revolutionists Emma Goldman and Alexander “Sasha” Berkman, whose passionate love affair fuels their commitment to creating a better world.Following their chance meeting at a New York café in 1890—Emma is fleeing a loveless marriage, while Sasha is becomin...

Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award: FictionBonus e-book content includes two out-takes from the novel -- how Antonio Garcia got his beautiful horse and how Miguel Orozco became mayor -- and two essays by Robert Hough: the true history of Dr. Brinkley and Robert Hough's decades-long infatuation with Mexico.Equal parts Mark Twain and Gabriel García Márquez, Robert Hough's wildl...

An illuminating portrait of an unconventional marriage by bestselling and critically acclaimed author Robert Hough.When Rose Camilleri and Scotty Larkin meet, neither expects to spend a lifetime together, navigating a sometimes turbulent marriage and scraping through the process of raising a family. When he first enters the bakery where she works, she is a new arrival from the tiny island nation of Malta, fond of rabbit stew and Hollywood cinema. He is a thoughtful...

The Stowaway is at once a thrilling maritime adventure and a thought-provoking morality tale based on real-life events. The novel begins in the spring of 1996 when Rodolfo Miguel, a bosun on the Taiwanese container ship Maersk Dubai, discovers a hungry and frightened pair of Romanian stowaways. He presents them to his officers, fully expecting that they’ll be put to work or else dropped off at the nearest port. Instead, he and his fellow Filipino crewmen watch in ...

This high-interest, low-vocabulary novella is intended for adult basic education (ABE) and English as a Second Language (ESL) readers. The year is 1920, and all of Mexico is at war with itself. Gangs of rebels roam the country, stealing money, food, and horses. Carlos is twenty-eight years old. He works in his father's cafe. One day, a gang rides into Carlo's village. When the gang leaves, they kidnap Carlos. Weeks later, the rebels and Carlos ride into the town of Rosita. Suddenly, Carlos...

In the 1910s and 1920s, when circus was the most popular form of entertainment in North America, Mabel Stark made her name in a man’s world as the greatest female tiger trainer in history, the centre-ring finale act for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. Brazen, courageous, obsessed with tigers and sexually eccentric, Stark survived a dozen severe maulings — and five husbands. Now, at age 80 and about to lose her job, she decides that there is one last thing she needs to do: Mab...

Hank Wallins is a broken man working the night shift in a meaningless job. Tormented by the tinnitus constantly ringing in his ears, he sleepwalks through life, too scarred by a tragic love affair to try again. When a madman pushes him into the path of an oncoming subway train, this scrape with death re-awakens Hank to the world. Craving a reengagement with passion, he reaches out to a young slightly cross-eyed Russian beauty who he locates on a website. He ventures by plane to meet the lo...

A New Face of Fiction for 2015, All True Not a Lie in It is pioneer Daniel Boone's life, told in his voice--a tall tale like no other, startling, funny, poignant, romantic and brawling, set during the American Revolutionary War and hinging on Boone's capture by the Shawnee.Here is Daniel Boone as you've never seen him. Debut novelist Alix Hawley presents Boone's life, from his childhood in a Quaker colony, through 2 stints captured by Indians as he attempte...

Finalist for the 2015 Giller PrizeAmong The National Post's Top 5 Books of 2015Among The Toronto Star's Top 5 Fiction Books of 2015Among Largehearted Boy's Favourite Novels of 2015One of Quill & Quire’s Books of the Year, 2015Among The Edmonton Journal's Top 5 Books of 2015A 49th Shelf Book...

“No one should ever work at a gas station long enough to get good at it,” observes Brendan, the narrator of the debut novel from Sean Trinder.Brendan is 20. He’s been pumping gas for three years, working the evening shift at the CountryGas station in a small town outside of Winnipeg. He’s gotten good at it. Which is sad. And Brendan knows that unless something happens fast, he’ll be stuck in this rut forever, inhaling gas fumes and quietly seething at the idiot customers endlessly ...