This Eden, the propulsive new novel from Irish-Canadian writer and journalist Ed O’Loughlin, begins with a meet-cute. Alice and Michael are both students in the University of British Columbia’s engineering program, and their first contact is “generated by a random weather event – a light fall of snow.” We see a spontaneous snowball fight, followed by a retreat to warm up in the Museum of Anthropology. One can almost hear the acoustic cover of a decades-old pop song playing behind their first date and then their decision to move in together. “By then, they had fallen in love with each other, in the way that young people do, the first time they have their own place to themselves. Not much thinking was required.”
The Crash Palace is a book by Andrew Wedderburn.(Coach House Books, Malcolm Overend)
The Crash Palace is about a woman named Audrey, who used to work in the oil fields and attend parties at a remote lodge in the wilderness known as the Crash Palace. Audrey has long left that life behind her, and now has a daughter. But one night, she is compelled to return to the now-abandoned Crash Palace where she must also reckon with her past.
When you can read it: Jan. 12, 2021
Andrew Wedderburn is a writer from Alberta. He is also the author of
The Milk Chicken Bomb, which was a finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. He is also a musician, and writes and performs with the groups Hot Little Rocket and Night Committee.
Biblioasis, Jan.
Vancouver writer Keath Fraser is one of this country’s most robust and individual literary voices; though despite a career that includes winning the Chapters/
Books in Canada First Novel Award for 1995’s
Popular Anatomy and being nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award for the story collection
Foreign Affairs a decade earlier, he is generally consigned to cult status at best in Canada.
With luck, all that will change in spring, when Biblioasis releases not one but two editions of the author’s work. The massive retrospective volume
Damages features stories selected from throughout Fraser’s career, beginning with the 1982 collection
Books to look out for in 2021
Irish fiction
New work that has been a long time coming generates a particular shiver of anticipation.
Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Her publisher says: “An exquisite wintery parable, Claire Keegan’s long-awaited return tells the story of a simple act of courage and tenderness, in the face of conformity, fear and judgment.” Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Photograph: Alan Betson