Please join us for the launch of our fabulous fall titles, featuring readings from James Cairns, Christy Climenhage, Daniel Coleman, Saad Omar Khan, Kyle Flemmer, Natalie Lim, Alexis von Konigslow and Julie Salverson.
Doors open at 7:00 pm, readings start at 7:30. Books will be available for sale.
Tranzac Club is a ground-floor facility with accessible washrooms.
ABOUT THE BOOKS
𝑰𝒏 𝑪𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒔, 𝑶𝒏 𝑪𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒔: 𝑬𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝐛𝐲 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐧𝐬
In 2022, the Collins Dictionary announced that its word of the year was “permacrisis,” which it defined as “an extended period of instability and insecurity, especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events.” Have we reached a breaking point, arrived at the moment of truth? If so, what now? If not, why do so many people say we’re living through a period of unprecedented crises? Drawing on social research, pop culture and literature, as well as on his experience as an activist, father and teacher, James Cairns explores the ecological crisis, Trump's return to power amid the so-called crisis of democracy, his own struggle with addiction and other moments of truth facing us today. In a series of insightful essays that move deftly between personal, theoretical and historical approaches he considers not only what makes something a crisis, but also how to navigate the effect of these destabilizing times on ourselves, on our families and on the world.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒅𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐠𝐞
When enigmatic billionaire Burton Sykes walks into Re-Gene-eration, a bespoke reproduction assistance clinic run by Raina and Cedric, two disgraced genetic engineers struggling to get by, they know they have a very unusual client. When Mr. Sykes asks them to genetically engineer a way for humanity to survive the coming ecological apocalypse, Raina is tempted. Bees are dying, crops are failing, and she knows her research is partly to blame. Could she help in some way? Though troubled, Cedric agrees to take part when it becomes clear their benefactor will do this with or without them. How else can he be sure their work won’t fall into the wrong hands? But can they really trust Mr. Sykes?
In this near-future science fiction thriller, Christy Climenhage has created a frighteningly real world on the verge of collapse. As disaster strikes, the two friends need to decide whether to cling to their old life or to let go and embrace a new path for humanity.
𝑮𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔: 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑭𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒖𝒎 𝑪𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝐛𝐲 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧
For decades Daniel Coleman has worked closely with many Indigenous scholars to understand the land he calls home and the complex and painful histories between Indigenous and European nations that have formed Canada. In Grandfather of the Treaties, he has drawn on this experience to craft an extensive study of the wampum covenants that underpin our nations, one that takes readers from wampum’s first emergence among Indigenous nations to how these covenants can help us shape a better future for all. In this wide-ranging book Coleman seeks to fill a deep hole in most Canadians’ knowledge of how our nation was formed. As we relearn our history, we can recommit to our earliest promises, which were meant to last “as long as the sun shines upon this earth, as long as the water still flows and as long as the grass grows green at a certain time of the year.”
𝑫𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝐛𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐝 𝐎𝐦𝐚𝐫 𝐊𝐡𝐚𝐧
The day after his thirty-third birthday, Murad spots a familiar face at a crowded intersection in downtown Toronto. Shocked, he stands silently as Sofi, a woman he’d fallen in love with almost a decade ago, walks by holding the hand of a small child. Murad turns and descends the subway steps to return home to his wife as the past washes over him and he is taken back to the first time they met. Moving between Lahore, London and Toronto, Drinking the Ocean is a story of connections lost and found and of the many kinds of love that shape a life, whether familial, romantic or spiritual. As Murad’s and Sofi’s lives touch and separate, we see them encounter challenges with relationships, family and God, and struggle with the complexities facing Muslims in the West. With compassion and elegance, Saad Omar Khan delicately illuminates the arcs of these two haunted lives, moved by fate and by love, as they absorb the impact of their personal spiritual journeys.
𝑺𝒖𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐲𝐥𝐞 𝐅𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫
For millennia humanity has looked upwards and traced stories in the night sky, projecting our human wants and desires outward. In Supergiants, Kyle Flemmer turns his gaze in the other direction. What does our reach for the stars say about us? Working with the technical language of engineering and astrophysics, Flemmer reorients the reader within our galaxy. Families of asteroids expand to contain their physical attributes, the mythic stories of their names and the histories of real people. We see the course of lunar exploration through the fate of the flags planted on each mission. Nebulae, blue giants and black holes enfold us. Interspersed throughout are a series of found/collage poems that visually reconfigure the elements of space exploration and our understanding of it. Through it all, Flemmer shows how we turn to the stars to make sense of ourselves and our place in the universe.
𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑶𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝐛𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐦
In her debut collection, Natalie Lim asks: How do we go on living and loving in a time of overlapping crises? Anchored by elegies for NASA’s Opportunity rover and a series of love poems, this collection explores the tension and beauty of a world marked by grief through meditations on Dungeons & Dragons, Taylor Swift’s cultural impact, the all-engulfing anxiety of the climate crisis and more. Confessional, funny and bursting with joy, Elegy for Opportunity extends a lifeline from Earth that will leave you feeling comforted, challenged and a little less alone in the universe.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒁𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝐛𝐲 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐨𝐧 𝐊𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰
Renya, a scientist who studies how people react to fear, flees a troubled marriage to conduct research on the scientists working in the “exclusion zone” around Chernobyl. In the eerily silent forests surrounding the research station, she finds more is haunting her than the dangers of radiation exposure. As she gathers data from her colleagues and probes historical records of the Chernobyl disaster, unsettling questions rise to the surface. Who is funding her research? Why are all the scientists’ findings off? And what do those who stalk the ruins of the abandoned city nearby want? In this atmospheric tale, Alexis von Konigslow deftly weaves the struggles of women in science with the impact of politics, both past and present, on people and on the environment. Part ghost story, part literary thriller, The Exclusion Zone is a mesmerizing story that reminds us all to listen to our hearts as well as the earth.
𝑨 𝑵𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆: 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑺𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓’𝒔 𝑫𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝐛𝐲 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧
George Salverson had written over a thousand radio plays for the CBC before he became the first television drama editor for the corporation. He wrote scripts for such beloved series as The Beachcombers and The Littlest Hobo, but he kept very little of his writing, being decidedly unsentimental about his work. So when his daughter Julie found a series of notebooks from a round-the-world trip he’d taken in 1963 to work on a documentary about world hunger, she knew she’d found something important. But the writer of these notebooks is not the father she thought she knew. From there Julie Salverson traces a fascinating web of personal and political history, of storytelling, of culture and it’s shaping and of a man caught in a time of great change.
