Michael Mirolla, in The Photographer in Search of Death, tells us stories that blend the explicable with the inexplicable. As if a camel were actually passing through the eye of a needle, these stories pass what is commonplace through a hyper-realistic lens into the utterly mysterious. Houses have rooms that appear and disappear. Very real objects, invaded by an unbelievable force, become believably unreal. Streets filled with everyday individuals become – in our modern technologi...

Michael Mirolla's poetic world is one where a mirror, or any simple reflective item is tilted ever so slightly, providing an opening to places we never imagined existed. (One of them is his own birth, from the inside, looking reluctantly out.) The poet is a metaphysical detective, finding the cracks and gashes that open into other worlds. Uncomfortable in the here and now, he would rather spend time in the past/future, or on the edge of that mirror. Luckily for us, shaped by his reflective...

This migration anthology is an entertaining miscellany of factual stories, essays, newspaper reportage, and even a poem, all of which highlight the humour, as well as the ironies and agonies generated when humans seek a new homeland. The authors, and their stories, are as diverse as our Canadian population itself, and help to tell who we all are within this amazing, tolerant, nurturing geographic space called Canada. All migrants have stories, but not all are writers, so although most auth...

Migration stories are an essential component of Canada's historical/literary continuum; we need to know of such writings to rationalize about who Canadians really are, and where they are from. Aren't we all the children of migration? Where we came from, how we got here, who we were, and are, and who may become in time ? such themes should interest all those naturally concerned about identity and origin; that eternal enigma wrought of migration. These short-fiction stories tell much about m...

The landlord, the husband, the wife, and the lover. Giulio di Orio, an assistant lecturer in Philosophy, brings one of his students, known as Torp—short for Torpedo—to the Vancouver flat he shares with his wife Nicole. Soon their landlord is convinced that Torp is the devil incarnate, and the police have arrested him for the street bombings that have been plaguing the city. A sexually-charged tale bubbling with lust, suspected murder, and the twilight of the flower children—all set against...

This collection gathers the best travel essays from The New Yorker, Harpers, GQ and more—featuring Paul Theroux, Alice Gregory, Dave Eggers and others.Why do I travel? Why does anyone of us travel? Bill Bryson poses these questions in his introduction to The Best American Travel Writing 2016, and though he admits, "I wasn't at all sure I knew the answer," these questions start us on the path of some fascinating exploratio...

The new book of articles and opinion from Jonathan Franzen, author of ‘Freedom’ and ‘The Corrections’.Jonathan Franzen’s ‘Freedom’ was the runaway most-discussed novel of 2010, an ambitious and searching engagement with life in America in the 21st century. Now, a new collection of Franzen’s non-fiction brings fresh demonstrations of his vivid, moral intelligence, confirming his status not only as a great American novelist but also as a master noticer, social critic, and self-invest...

‘A dazzling and virtuosic adventure’ Joseph O’Connor, author of Star of the SeaInternationally Bestselling Winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008‘With Ilustrado, Miguel Syjuco obliges us to remake the canons of our great classics of contemporary literature. Ilustrado is, literally, a masterpiece’ Alberto ManguelIt begins with a body. One anonymous winter day, the corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River. Gone is the controver...

From bestselling author Kristina McMorris comes an ambitious and heartrending story of immigrants, deception, and second chances.On a cold night in October 1937, searchlights cut through the darkness around Alcatraz. A prison guard’s only daughter—one of the youngest civilians who lives on the island—has gone missing. Tending the warden’s greenhouse, convicted bank robber Tommy Capello waits anxiously. Only he knows the truth about the little girl’s wherea...

A quick read from the bestselling storyteller, Josephine Cox. Love at first sight and a mysterious disappearance.Best friends Mark and Pete board a train to London for a night out.As Pete finds a seat he notices a girl sitting on a bench. She looks sad and lonely. When the train leaves, he can't get her out of his mind because in her he has seen a glimpse of himself.Over the coming months Pete sees the girl often, but when tempted to speak to her, his courage fails....

Half the world's languages are threatened with extinction over the next century, as English and the rest of the world's top twenty languages drive all before them. What ways of looking at the world will die along with them, what cultural riches, what experiences, histories and memories? And how does it feel to be one of the last remaining speakers of a language that is on its way to extinction? What chance is there of saving any of these languages? Is it feasible in the long term or even w...

Mordantly funny, thought-provoking travel essays, from the acclaimed author of Out of Sheer Rage and “one of our most original writers” (New York Magazine).This isn’t a self-help book; it’s a book about how Geoff Dyer could do with a little help. In these genre-defying tales, he travels from Amsterdam to Cambodia, Rome to Indonesia, Libya to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert, floundering in a sea of grievances, with fleeting moments of transcendental calm his o...