Go North: Diverse Fiction by Canadian Authors

Fiction is arranged alphabetically by the author's last name.
Please consult the online catalog or check with a librarian to verify location and availability.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (1996)

Takes readers into the life and mind of Grace Marks, one of the most notorious women of the 1840s, who is serving a life sentence for murders she claims she cannot remember.

Barney's Version, by Mordecai Richler (1997)

Barney Panofsky, the three-time divorced owner of a successful trashy TV company, Totally Useless Productions, looks back on his life, describing his young manhood, his three wives, and his lifelong passion for wine, women, and the Montreal Canadiens.

The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (1994)

A painter of the birds of his remote village on the coast of Newfoundland, the narrator of this novel--a finalist for the 1994 National Book Award--recounts the passion and betrayal that led him to murder a lighthouse keeper.

Burden of Desire by Robert MacNeil (1992)

Historical novel that takes place during the time of the Halifax Explosion, one of the most devastating events in Canadian history.

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (1999)

Joe Smallwood, an impoverished boy intent on making a name for himself, and Sheilagh Fielding, a journalist who pens his rise to power, confront their own frailties, secrets, and mutual love, in a novel of twentieth-century Newfoundland.

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (2002)

In the rural farm country of northern Ontario, the lives of members of two families--the farming Pye family and the Morrisons, zoologist Kate Morrison and her three brothers--are brought together and torn apart by misunderstanding, resentment, family love, and tragedy. A first novel.

The Cunning Man, by Robertson Davies (1995)

Following a mysterious death at the high altar on Good Friday, holistic doctor Jonathan Hullah takes a critical look at his past and the individuals who shaped his life, and reevaluates his personal philosophies.

The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence (1974)

Morag Gunn grows up in a small town on the Canadian prairie, escapes from an unhappy marriage, and returns to rural Canada in hopes of coming to terms with the past.

Eleanor Rigby, by Douglas Coupland (2004)

Liz Dunn has little to keep her going until a strange young man named Jeremy arrives in her life, upsetting her quiet routine and triggering events that take Liz around the world, into danger, and maybe, for the first time, in reach of happiness.

The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje (1992)

At the end of World War II, the lives of four people – a young Canadian nurse; her dying English patient, a handless American thief; and an Indian soldier in the British army – intertwine in a deserted Italian villa.

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald (1996)

Spanning five generations and moving from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, to the bleak landscape of World War I, and to the emerging jazz scene in New York City, this epic tale tells the story of four sisters.

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon (2009)

A prize-winning story inspired by the historical relationship between Aristotle and the young Alexander the Great finds the legendary philosopher reluctantly tutoring a childhood friend's son only to find himself impressed by the young heir's potential and early handling of difficult military and political challenges.

The Last Crossing, by Guy Vanderhaeghe (2002)

Ordered by their tyrannical industrialist father to find their missing brother, Englishmen Charles and Addington Gaunt set off to America, where half-Blackfoot guide Jerry Potts and a growing number of companions journey by wagon train and confront a number of personal demons.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001)

Possessing encyclopedia-like intelligence, unusual zookeeper's son Pi Patel sets sail for America, but when the ship sinks, he escapes on a life boat and is lost at sea with a dwindling number of animals until only he and a hungry Bengal tiger remain.

Lies of Silence, by Brian Moore (1990)

IRA terrorists force Michael Dillon, who has just decided to leave his wife for another woman, to participate in a plot that will kill hundreds, threatening that if he alerts the police his wife will be killed.

Overhead in a Balloon: Twelve Stories of Paris, by Mavis Gallant (1985)

Twelve stories deal with writers, parents, art dealers, tenants, drifters, and manipulative older women.

Runaway: Stories, by Alice Munro (2004)

This collection of short fiction captures the lives of women of all ages and circumstances, as they deal with the limits and lies of passion unfulfilled dreams, motherhood, betrayal, and the bonds of love – between men and women, friends, and parents and children.

Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella (1982)

Motivated by his fanatical love of baseball, Ray Kinsella is inspired to build a baseball stadium in his corn field, dedicated to his hero, the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson, in a novel that became the inspiration for the film Field of Dreams .

Spadework: A Novel, by Timothy Findley (2002)

Follows the erotic story of a promising young actor who becomes the victim of sexual blackmail after an accidental disconnection of a telephone cable.

The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields (1995)

From her birth in rural Manitoba, to her journey with her father to southern Indiana, to her years as a wife, mother, and widow, to her old age, Daisy Stone Goodwill struggles to find a place for herself.

Under the Volcano, by Malcolm Lowry (1947)

Geoffrey Firmin, a former British consul, struggles to surmount the forces which threaten to destroy him.

Your Mouth is Lovely: A Novel, by Nancy Richler (2002)

A story told through a series of letters to the main character's daughter follows her upbringing in a Russian shtetl by her stepmother after her mother's mysterious suicide, her isolation as an outcast, and her exile to Siberia.

 Updated 10/10

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