15 historical fiction books to lose yourself in this summer

Looking for a good summer read? Transport yourself with these historical fiction works by Canadian and international authors. Check it out!

Miriam Toews, Sarah Polley, Silmy Abdullah, Camilla Gibb among authors longlisted for $10K Toronto Book Awards

Thirteen books, including Fight Night by Miriam Toews, are on the longlist for the 2022 Toronto Book Awards. 

Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, the Toronto Book Awards honour books that are inspired by the city. 

Find out all about the longlisted books!

Holocaust survivor and Canada Reads author Max Eisen dead at 93

Tibor "Max" Eisen, a Holocaust survivor, educator and author of the Canada Reads-winning book By Chance Alone has died at the age of 93 on July 7, 2022, CBC Books has confirmed.

Eisen's memoir By Chance Alone won Canada Reads 2019, defended by Canadian broadcaster, science journalist and author Ziya Tong.  

Born on March 15, 1929 to an Orthodox Jewish family, Eisen was 15 at the time of his family's deportation from their home in annexed Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Find out more about Eisen's life and his Canada Reads-winning memoir By Chance Alone.

After blockbuster book The Marrow Thieves, 'peer pressure' led Cherie Dimaline to pen sequel Hunting by Stars

Bestselling YA novel The Marrow Thieves was supposed to be a one-off, self-contained book. Cherie Dimaline thought she could walk away from the story and its open ending — but her fans had other ideas.

The Marrow Thieves, originally published in 2017 has taken on a life of its own: it was the #1 bestselling Canadian book in the country's independent bookstores in 2018;  it was defended by singer Jully Black on Canada Reads 2018; it is currently being adapted into a TV series; it was named one of Time magazine's top 100 YA novels of all time; and it won several awards, including the Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text. 

Dimaline spoke to The Next Chapter's Shelagh Rogers about writing The Marrow Thieves sequel Hunting By Stars.

Reema Patel's debut novel Such Big Dreams is the redemption story she just had to tell

Reema Patel's debut novel took her a decade to write but, as she reflects over the phone, she never gave up on the process even once. It's the story she had to tell. 

Such Big Dreams is about Rakhi, a 23-year-old former street child and office assistant living in Mumbai who wants more from her life. Through her search for more and her work at Justice For All, a struggling human rights law office, Rakhi and three other characters become entangled in a web of chaos and deception as they try to get what they want from each other. 

Patel spoke to CBC Books about finding fulfilment through writing Such Big Dreams. 

Edward P. Jones's novel The Known World is a compelling tale of slavery in the Antebellum South

In his stunning first novel, Edward P. Jones created an entire world based on what he called a historical footnote: that in the 19th century, there were freed American slaves who themselves became slave owners. Even more surprising: Jones imagined and carried the story in his head for nearly a decade.

It wasn't until he was fired from his long-time day job at an accounting magazine that he sat down to write the novel. Ambitious and courageous, The Known World won a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Jones was born in 1950 in Washington, D.C., and raised by an illiterate single mother who worked as a dishwasher and a maid, moving 18 times in as many years. It was after winning a scholarship to college that he began writing fiction. His first book of stories, Lost in the City, won the Pen Hemingway Award. Jones has also been awarded the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. 

Jones spoke to Writers & Company's Eleanor Wachtel about writing The Known World from the CBC's Washington studio in 2005. 

Brian Francis's nonfiction book Missed Connections explores body image, desire — and the price of secrecy

Brian Francis is the author of the novels Fruit, Natural Order and Break in Case of Emergency. He is a writer and columnist for The Next Chapter on CBC Radio and lives in Toronto. His first novel, Fruit, was a finalist for Canada Reads 2009.

In 1992, Francis was a 21-year-old university student, gay but still in the closet. That year, he placed a personal ad in the newspaper: "Real cute university student, 21, seeks same." And now, from his perch in midlife, he answers some of the letters he received in reply.

His nonfiction book Missed Connections uses these letters as a starting point to reflect on everything that has changed for him as a gay man, exploring the price of secrecy and the courage it takes to be unapologetically yourself.

Francis spoke to The Next Chapter's Shelagh Rogers about writing Missed Connections.

Fawn Parker wrestles with the complexity of memory and trauma in the novel What We Both Know

The title of Fawn Parker's third novel, What We Both Know, is at once a hint and a ruse — on the surface, the story of a famous older man set in the wake of the #MeToo movement seems all too evident. But its narrative of fractured memory that pushes the reader to consider what truth is — or if it really exists at all — is anything but.

In What We Both Know, protagonist Hillary Greene's father, a famous author, is losing his memory in his old age — and with it, his ability to write. As an aspiring author and his full-time caretaker, Hillary agrees to ghostwrite his memoir — but delving into his past leads to unearthing buried memories of the abuse of her late sister Pauline, who took her own life not long ago.

Parker told CBC Books about tackling thorny issues — including trauma, toxic masculinity, aging and dysfunctional family dynamics — to write What We Both Know.

Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Jordan Tannahill's novel The Listeners turns up the volume on faith talk

Jordan Tannahill is a playwright, director and author. He has twice won the Governor General's Literary Award for drama: in 2014 for the play Age of Minority and in 2018 for the plays Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom. His debut novel, Liminal, won France's 2021 Prix des Jeunes Libraires.

Tannahill's second novel, The Listeners, follows a suburban mother and teacher named Claire Devon. Set up as a memoir, The Listeners is Claire's account of how she becomes part of a disparate group of people who can hear a low hum that has no obvious source or medical cause. Feeling more and more isolated from her family, Claire strikes up a friendship with one of her students who can also hear the hum, and her life soon begins to unravel.

Tannahill spoke with The Next Chapter's Shelagh Rogers about digging into a mysterious phenomenon to write The Listeners.

12 sci-fi and fantasy books to unwind with this summer

It's the summer season in Canada! 

Check out these Canadian and international science fiction and fantasy books perfect to read at the beach or patio.