With so many things fighting for our attention nowadays, from the compulsive itch to scroll through your phone to the never-ending list of tasks to attend to, it can feel frustrating to let so many of the books in our TBR pile sit untouched. We may be hungry for the satisfaction of reading, yet we cannot seem to find the time or brainspace to finish the books we start. However, brevity is the soul of the wit, as they say, so maybe it’s the shortest of fictions and true tales that we need!
Whether it’s poetry you’re craving or a trip to the theatre—here are some of our favourite short reads this season.
FICTION
Hands Like Trees by Sabyasachi Nag (Ronsdale Press)
This “story cycle” takes us through the lives of different members of the Sen family, from Nilroy’s movingly excruciating first day as caregiver to Aunt Rita with dementia to Milli’s ambition to host her guru Mata G. The experiences of each character draw a portrait of the Sen family, following them as each one “seeks Oz,” as put by a review from author George Elliott Clarke, “but ends up in a Twilight Zone of the slippage between promise and fate, possibility and doom.”
In 240 pages, Sabyasachi Nag unfurls three decades of the entangled lives of the Sens, evoking the rising heat of Calcutta in the early morning as masterfully as he depicts the calmness of a snow-lit evening street in Brampton, Ontario.
Available now!
THEATRE
Shadow Catch by Daphne Marlatt (Talonbooks)
Influenced by Noh, a form of classical Japanese theatre originating in the 14th century, this chamber opera libretto recounts the dreams of the Runaway, a teenage boy who ends up one night in Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Or are they dreams? As the night unfolds over four acts, the Runaway is visited by four troubled spirits from the park’s past: the Spirit of the Maple Tree from K’emk’emeláy̓, whose grove was decimated by loggers; a member of the brilliant Asahi baseball team, whose players were sent off to Japanese internment camps; the keeper of a 1920s brothel who is haunted by the tragic death of one of “her” women; and a roughneck 1930s policeman who succumbed to corruption.
A spellbinding capture of the chamber opera, Shadow Catch’s 80 pages are replete with contextual material to supplement the libretto, including brief histories of species interconnectedness in Oppenheimer Park, the Asahi baseball team, Vancouver’s early red-light district, and the Battle of Ballantyne Pier. Yet this is a story not only about characters from Vancouver’s historical and cultural past—but about the journey and transformation that must take place in order to confront one’s greatest fears and regrets.
Out Now!
POETRY
Burning Sage: Poems from the Lytton Fire by Meghan Fandrich (Caitlin Press)
“This debut collection about the devastating fire in Lytton,” author Lorna Crozier writes, “pushes the reader into the flames. Beyond photographs and news clips, beyond anyone’s reporting, Meghan Fandrich’s poems make the nightmare palpable. Hers is an insider’s story told with passion and skill, not one word wasted. I feel privileged to have gone on this journey with her.”
On the day that Lytton, BC, burned to the ground, Meghan Fandrich ran from the flames. She saw the town turn into a black pillar of smoke, and went home after a month-long evacuation to its ashes. Her house, on the edge of the fire, was saved; her community and her small business were not. Life as she knew it was gone, and somehow, in spite of the trauma and the ongoing onslaught of natural disasters, she had to keep going. Living. Surviving.
In 88 beautiful pages, Burning Sage shares Meghan’s deeply personal story of the fire, the ensuing trauma, and the path out of it. The poems share a vivid portrait of grief and of heartbreak, but it is also a human story—a universal story—of loneliness, fragility, beauty, and above all, healing.
Available in September!
The White Light of Tomorrow by Russell Thornton (Harbour Publishing)
The solid shapes of language are reconstructed to follow the ebb and flow of water in this masterful new collection from award-winning poet Russell Thornton. In Thornton’s intense lyricism, one wakes to the “aloneness of water,” light becomes “fate” and love simply the “memory of light.” A long-lost father’s drafting set case becomes a “coffin,” its tools a “skeleton.” A description of an ancient BC site is a rapt engagement with Indigenous petroglyphs. Classical myth informs a poem about a power outage.
Beautiful to the point of mythical, passionate and moving, expansive and classical, this 96-page collection marks a fine advance in Thornton’s poetic output as he redefines language as we know it and reminds us that poetry can hold both the tenderness and steadiness of “a touch within a touch.”
Available in September!
Hologram: Homage to P.K. Page, edited by Yvonne Blomer & DC Reid (Caitlin Press)
P.K. Page earned numerous awards and accolades in her lifetime for her work as a poet and visual artist, and today, her impact upon the Canadian poetic landscape is recognized throughout the country, honoured by the annual P. K. Page Founders’ Award for Poetry offered by The University of Victoria with The Malahat Review.
Hologram: Homage to P.K. Page invites renowned poets to honour P.K. Page’s legacy and pay tribute to the mentoring that she has offered through community and conversation, as a living writer and through her poetry. Edited by Yvonne Blomer and DC Reid, this collection features pieces by, among countless others, John Barton, Marilyn Bowering, Lorna Crozier, Eve Joseph, Patrick Lane, Alice Major, kjmunro, and Patricia Young.
As Solveig Adair writes in her brief story about P.K. Page, “I want to have a conversation with P.K. Page, but I’ve gradually realized that I’ve been having that conversation, year over year.”
Hologram: Homage to P.K. Page is that conversation given form in a breathtaking 192-page anthology, promising to inspire past and future generations of writers, thinkers, and poetry-lovers.
Available in September!
NONFICTION
The Zone: Rediscovering Our Natural Self by Rob Wood (Rocky Mountain Books)
The documentary film The Zone follows legendary mountaineer, naturalist, and architect Rob Wood as he attempts to top one last summit while dealing with Parkinson’s Disease—and now, with this memoir based on the documentary’s core philosophy, Rob shares both an inspiring manifesto of resilience and a tender love song to the power of nature.
With an unshakeable faith in the wonders of the natural world and our own need to reconnect with it, The Zone: Rediscovering Our Natural Self takes the reader on a hundred-page journey documenting how—through the author’s deep connection to what he calls a “universal consciousness”—even the most difficult physical limitations can be dealt with effectively and successfully, with limited medical or pharmaceutical support.
Out Now!