The CBC Massey Lectures are here at last, fantastic fall fiction, and irresistible paperback releases

WINTER
by Adam Gopnik

This year's CBC Massey Lectures celebrates fifty years with bestselling author, essayist, cultural observer, and famed New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik, whose subject is winter -- the season, the space, the cycle.
 
A stunningly beautiful meditation buoyed by Gopnik's trademark gentle wit, Winter is at once an enchanting homage to an idea of a season and a captivating journey through the modern imagination. This deluxe 50th anniversary edition includes 24 full-colour images.

THE ANTAGONIST

by Lynn Coady 

  

From bestselling novelist Lynn Coady comes an unforgettable, unflinching story of a life gone wrong.

  

Against his will and his nature, the hulking Gordon Rankin ("Rank") is cast as an enforcer, a goon -- by his classmates, his hockey coaches, and especially his own "tiny, angry" father, Gordon Senior. Rank gamely lives up to his role -- until tragedy strikes. Escaping the only way he can, Rank disappears. But almost twenty years later he discovers that an old, trusted friend -- the only person to whom he has ever confessed his sins -- has published a novel mirroring Rank's life. The betrayal cuts to the deepest heart of him, and Rank will finally have to confront the tragic true story from which he's spent his whole life running away.

  

With the deep compassion, deft touch, and irreverent humour that have made her one of Canada's best-loved novelists, Lynn Coady delves deeply into the ways we sanction and stoke male violence, giving us a large-hearted, often hilarious portrait of a man tearing himself apart in order to put himself back together.

  

What are the reviews saying? 

 

"In this coming-of-age tale, male friendships and relationships are explored in all their goofiness and complexity . . . [Lynn Coady is] one of Canada's best writers of fiction." -- Winnipeg Free Press

  

". . . thoroughly engrossing. . . a breathless and frequently hilarious narrative . . . one of the freshest voices in years." -- FASHION Magazine  

EASY TO LIKE     
by Edward Riche

 

A bitingly hilarious satire of the making of wine, television, and taste from one of Canada's most accomplished comic writers.

From award-winning author Edward Riche comes an immensely readable and sharp novel about "C"-list screenwriter and wannabe vintner Elliot Johnson. With his life growing more ruinous by the day -- his writing career is on the rocks, his struggling vineyard is being investigated by the feds, and his son, a former child star, is in prison -- Elliot decides to do what any self-respecting wine lover would do: escape to France.

Alas, fate has other things in store. Stranded in Canada by an expired passport, he is strongly encouraged to remain there due to his bit part in a growing Hollywood scandal. Deciding that Toronto may just be the perfectly engineered city in which to lay low, Elliot kills time by bluffing his way to the top of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

 

The first reviews are in:

 

"[Edward Riche's] new satire wasn't just easy to like, it was finish-the-bottle-and-order-another delicious." -- Telegraph-Journal
 
". . . a fast-paced, sure-footed read . . . sparkling [with] wit and spice." -- Telegram  

 

DIRTY FEET

by Edem Awumey
translated by Lazer Lederhendler

A finalist for France's prestigious Prix Goncourt literary award, Dirty Feet is a remarkable, inventive, and darkly compelling novel that tells the story of one man's journey to retrace the steps of the mysterious, nomadic father who abandoned him years earlier.

As a small child, Askia was forced, along with his family, to wander the African desert as if under a curse. First driven from their home by drought and hunger, they were then kept from the villages they passed through by the fear and suspicion of others, who did not want to see their "dirty feet" stay for too long.

Years later, it seems Askia is destined to relive his family's curse night after night as he roams the streets of Paris in his taxi. One evening, he picks up Olia, a young woman who claims to recognize his face, telling him that his features are similar to those of a man she photographed years ago. Had it been his father, the enigmatic Sidi Ben Sylla Mohammed? The father who migrated north long before he did; the father he has so often dreamt about; the father whom he aches to meet? With Olia's help, Askia sets out to retrace Sidi's steps. But before he can embark on this new journey, he must first confront his violent past.

A brutal, indelibly powerful look at the harrowing, often violent lives of those who are condemned to wander.

NEW IN PAPERBACK

     

NEW FROM GRANTA