Winner, IPPY Award Gold Medal (Regional - Canada East Non-Fiction)Leonard "Len" Keith and Joseph "Cub" Coates grew up in the rural New Brunswick village of Havelock in the early 20th century. The two were neighbours, and they clearly developed an inseparable relationship. Len was an amateur photographer and automobile enthusiast who went on to own a local garage and poolhall after serving in the First World War. Cub was the son of a farmer, also a veteran of the Fi...

The first full-scale biography of Canada’s first prime minister in half a century by one of our best-known and most highly regarded political writers.The first volume of Richard Gwyn’s definitive biography of John A. Macdonald follows his life from his birth in Scotland in 1815 to his emigration with his family to Kingston, Ontario, to his days as a young, rising lawyer, to his tragedy-ridden first marriage, to the birth of his political ambitions, to his commitment to the all-but-...

Exploring Toronto’s history through the stories of its most fascinating and shadowy deaths.If these streets could talk…With morbid tales of war and plague, duels and executions, suicides and séances, Toronto’s past is filled with stories whose endings were anything but peaceful. The Toronto Book of the Dead delves into these: from ancient First Nations burial mounds to the grisly murder of Toronto’s first lighthouse keeper; from the rise and fall o...

From the internationally celebrated author of No Great Mischief comes a moving short story of three generations of men from a single family whose lives are forever altered by the long shadow of war.In the early morning hours of November 11, David MacDonald, a veteran of the Second World War, stands outside his Cape Breton home, preparing to attend what will likely be his last Remembrance Day parade. As he waits for the arrival of his son and grandson, he re...

The award-winning, bestselling author of While Canada Slept gives his view of a country wasted on Canadians.What is national character? What makes the Americans, the British, the French, the Russians, and the Chinese who they are? In this homogenized world, where globalization is a byword for a deadening sameness, why do peoples who live in the same region, use the same money, read the same books, and watch the same movies remain different from one another? As much as Cana...

In a country this diverse, 'culture' has different meanings. Vance tells a story from the wind-swept Arctic where a stranded Innu woman, fighting to survive, took the time to decorate her clothing with rich designs. A British explorer was amazed at her efforts, but Vance reminds us of the inseparable connection between life and art in Inuit culture (the Innu word for 'breathe' also means 'to make poetry,' and both derive from the word for 'the soul'). No surprise that Aboriginal culture began...

Behind the politics, discover the lives of Canada's leaders.“What a life it is to be prime minister!” — John DiefenbakerCanada has had twenty-three prime ministers, all with views and policies that have differed as widely as the ages in which they lived. But what were they like as people? Being Prime Minister takes you behind the scenes to tell the story of Canada’s leaders and the job they do as it has never been told before.From ...

Alus has saved Lilisha and foiled Aferka’s plot, but now convicts are escaping from a secret prison in the Outer World and infiltrating Alpha! While Alus receives secret orders as the world’s greatest Magicmaster, Fanon Trooper—Clevideet’s rank 4 Magicmaster—is also dispatched on an emergency mission to pursue a pair of prisoners. The two finally collide when a major incident occurs on their nations’ shared border. What will happen as a result? And what are Dante’s goals as the leader of t...

Stephen Leacock's satiric masterpiece Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town captures "the Empire forever" mentality that marked Anglo-Canadian life in the early decades of the twentieth century. Historian Margaret Macmillan—whose books Women of the Raj and Paris 1919 cast fresh light on the colonial legacy—has great affection for Leacock's gentle wit and sharp-eyed insight. The renowned historian examines Leacock's life as a poor but ambitious student who rose to become an economist, celebrat...

The story of the bloody 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge is, according to many of today’s tellings, a heroic founding moment for Canada. This noble, birth-of-a-nation narrative is regularly applied to the Great War in general. Yet this mythical tale is rather new. “Vimyism”— today’s official story of glorious, martial patriotism—contrasts sharply with the complex ways in which veterans, artists, clerics, and even politicians who had supported the war interpreted its meaning over the decades....

A hilarious tour through Canada's history, from the nation's most trusted news source: The Beaverton.There is a new media empire in Canada—and unlike others, it is honest about being "fake news." Its satirical headlines have been misinforming Canadians across the country and the world, using parody to shine a light on the nation. What started as an immensely popular online newspaper led to a hit TV show delivering biting commentary on Canadian culture, pol...

“The most important book to be written in more than 40 years about the rise of Canadian literature… Arrival: The Story of CanLit brims and crackles, in equal measure, with information and energy.” — Winnipeg Free PressA Globe and Mail Top 100 BookNational Post 99 Best Books of the YearIn the mid-twentieth century, Canadian literature transformed from a largely ignored trickle of books into an enorm...