Wednesday, May 20, 2015

A gallery of new & upcoming historical novels from Canada

This latest gallery (see the tag Visual Previews for more) covers a dozen new and upcoming historical novels from Canadian publishers. The novels themselves are set all over the place: Canada, certainly, in the 19th and 20th centuries, but also 16th-century Istanbul, medieval Scotland, WWII France, and colonial America.

As an American reader, I often find it difficult to find new HF offerings from Canada; they're hard to track down through online bookstore listings.  I discovered a few of these through the authors' social media posts, and others through newspaper reviews, browsing publishers' catalogs, or because of my work with the Historical Novels Review.  I welcome suggestions for other books in the comments.



The life story of Camille Claudel, sculptor and mistress of Rodin, intertwines with that of the nurse who cares for her in France's Montdevergues Asylum in 1943.  Cormorant, May 2015.



This literary cowboy novel tells the adventures of John Ware (1845–1905), a former slave from South Carolina who established a successful ranch in southern Alberta.  TouchWood Editions, May 2015.



"But then she buys a rifle, and everything changes." The tale of the intrepid Abigail Peacock and her adventures (and those of other Western notables) in the late 19th-century Canadian and American West.  I'll be reading it shortly.  Brindle & Glass, June 2015.



A literary novel of freedom and re-invention, centering on a young Finnish woman who takes a road trip across the Canadian prairie in the '30s with a stranger she meets at a dance.  McClelland & Stewart, Feb 2015.


An epic love story between a soldier from Nova Scotia and a young Frenchwoman during WWI, set in the French countryside and in Halifax.  Simon & Schuster Canada, April 2015.



A young piano prodigy's coming of age, and the redemptive power of music, set in Depression-era Montreal.  Cormorant, May 2015.



A literary tall tale exploring the full-bodied life of Daniel Boone, set during the American Revolution.  Love the title.  Knopf Canada, Feb 2015.



A British war widow and a Nova Scotian schoolteacher unexpectedly join forces in post-WWI Alberta to help combat the spread of VD in the province. The author is the wife of Canada's Governor General.  Dundurn, April 2014.



This sequel to the bestselling The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi is a story of faith and forbidden love set in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire.  Aged 89 when her latest was published, Park is currently writing volume three. House of Anansi, October 2014.



For her latest work of literary fiction, Powning (The Sea Captain's Wife, reviewed here in 2011) turns to the story of English-born Mary Dyer, who traveled to America in the 1630s and found the Puritan church of the Massachusetts Bay Colony horrifically intolerant. Knopf Canada, April 2015.



The "farmerettes" are six young woman, recent high school grads, who form bonds, find love, and face heartbreak as they work together on a family farm, taking the place of men off fighting overseas during the summer of 1943.  A YA novel.  Second Story, April 2015.



Somehow I missed that Jack Whyte had a new book out.  This newest in his Scottish series is subtitled "a tale of Andrew Murray," a military leader who became a Guardian of Scotland. Viking Canada, November 2014.

10 comments:

  1. I'm adding several of these titles to my wish list; esp. pleased to learn about the Jack Whyte book. His book about William Wallace is a favorite.

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    1. He's a great storyteller. I once heard him give a speech about the art of storytelling, and he had the audience enthralled.

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  2. It's too bad that these are difficult to get here in the US--Canada's southern neighbor. These stories all look really interesting, and I would love to read every one of them. And several of them involve the US and/or American characters or settings. Surely it should be easier to get Canadian published books--esp. from the larger publishing houses--here in the US as it is a neighboring country.

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    1. They're obtainable from online stores like Chapters Indigo and Amazon.ca, but expect to pay a lot for postage. Which seems silly in a way considering how close it is, but that's how it is. Sometimes you can also find them on Amazon.com, if the company also does business in the US (like TouchWood and Dundurn), so it's worth checking there first.

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  3. Thanks for sharing these, Sarah. They look great, and I haven't heard of most of them, which only goes to prove that even Canadians have trouble finding Canadian-published books!

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    1. If you come across other interesting Canadian titles, Clarissa, I'd be interested to hear about them. The times I've visited Canada, either for a conference or to see family, I've visited some bookstores (naturally) and found so many titles I'd never have known existed otherwise, and even then, I'm sure there were many others that weren't stocked. Coming up with 12 to feature using only online sources took some time and work!

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  4. Nice post! Being Canadian I am always on the lookout for either Canadian authors and/or settings. I just discovered Beth Powning and Geneviene Graham. Sometimes I even have a hard time finding books here. Bookdepository is one of my favorite online bookstores - free shipping too. There is also Barbara Kyle, Susanna Kearsley, Jennifer Robson, Sandra Gullard and Eva Stachniak - wow we sure got some talent here.

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    1. You're right, there's a lot of literary talent in Canada. I'll take a look at Book Depository for Canadian editions. I ended up getting the books by Beth Powning and Genevieve Graham from Amazon Canada. Their shipping was expensive but fast, just a few days.

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    2. Sarah if there are any books you are looking at now, you can have them shipped to me and I can bring to Denver. Check out bookoutlet.ca They used to be selloutbooks.com I think (I work just around the corner from them, which isn't always a good thing).

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    3. Hi Margaret, thanks very much for the offer. I'll let you know if I want to order anything else. Bookoutlet is a site I visit all the time, and I've even been to the store in St. Catharines twice. If I lived nearby, I'd be there all the time!

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