National Network for Equitable Library Service

"1593. Queen Elizabeth reigns from the throne while two rival spymasters--Sir Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex--plot from the shadows. Their goal? To control succession upon the aged queen's death. The man on which their schemes depend? Christopher Marlowe, a cobbler's son from Canterbury who has defied expectations and become an accomplished poet and playwright. Now that the plague has closed theatres, Marlowe must resume the work for which he was originally recruited: intelligence and espionage.

Daniel Solomon is not having a good day. Somewhere between Bangkok and Tokyo, zipping through the stratosphere, the jetliner on which he's travelling cracks open like an egg, ejecting Daniel and his fellow passengers into the great blue sky. If only that were the worst of it. Thousands of feet above the merciless Earth, still strapped into his seat, his cherished comics fluttering away like freed parrots, Daniel finds out what it means to have your life flash before your eyes.

"Facing the dwindling years of his life, an old man waits for his turn on the auction block, hoping to be sold to a family as decent as the one he is leaving. It is not the first time he has been here, and it may not be the last. Mute in life but loquacious on the page, the old man tells the colourful story of his rootless life. Abandoned by his family and first auctioned off at the age of seven--'Ladies and gentlemen, this boy may not be a rare gem, but he is certainly worth a look'--he moves from one farm to another, taking comfort from the people around him.

A feral girl roams the dense forests of nineteenth-century France. In the village of Freyzus, she is chased by suspicious townspeople to the edge of a gorge, where she jumps and disappears, vanishing into village legend. On the other side of the gorge, in an abandoned estate, Peyre Rouff lives out his self-imposed exile following a horrific hunting accident, focussing all of his attention on intricate taxidermic dioramas. When Peyre encounters the wild girl, they find a link in their mutual estrangement from society and the two achieve an easy coexistence.

In the mid-1970s, tensions simmer beneath the surface of a small town in rural Massachusetts. But sixteen-year-old identical twin sisters April and Pilgrim live happily on their parents' farm. Their father recruits a young Bahamian doctor to minister to the town's residents. While racial prejudice keeps patients away, the idle doctor spends much of his time with the family. When the relationship between the girls and the young doctor comes to light, the family is torn apart.

Set in a small northern town, under the mythical shadow of the Sleeping Giant, Wake the Stone Man follows the complicated friendship of two girls coming of age in the 1960s. Molly meets Nakina, who is Ojibwe and a survivor of the residential school system, in high school, and they form a strong friendship. As the bond between them grows, Molly, who is not native, finds herself a silent witness to the racism and abuse her friend must face each day. In this time of political awakening, Molly turns to her camera to try to make sense of the intolerance she sees in the world around her.

It’s summer in Toronto, and the snow and ice are relentless. Too bad no one but Avery can see it.

Avery Gauthier can’t get far enough away from her past: the death of her beloved father, the abuse she suffered as a teen, and the religion that tore her parents apart. A reality-refugee, she’s managed to keep the chaos of her former life at bay… until now.

Gisèle Villeneuve’s short stories test the elastic pull between passion and terror. For inspiration, Villeneuve turned to her personal history to examine what lures urban dwellers outdoors, to test themselves against peaks and valleys. Using the overarching metaphor of mountain climbing, she plays with form, language, and narrative to reveal our fears, our loves, our passions. Rising Abruptly is a perfect companion for anyone who likes to travel, loves a climber, or simply glories in the allure of the mountains.

Panic-stricken by the news that she needs exploratory surgery, forty-eight-year-old Mercy Beth Fanjoy drafts a monumental "to do" list and sets about putting her messy life in order. Among other things (hide the vibrator!), she's determined to finally uncover the identity of her secret admirer; reconnect with a lost friend and rival Teen Gaudet; and, most importantly, get her hands on the note her father left her before committing suicide all those years ago. But tidying up the edges of her life means the past comes rushing back to haunt her and the present keeps throwing up more to do's.

Scattered Bones is a story of the complicated, fragile and sometimes fatal relations between Indigenous people and settlers in Northern Saskatchewan in the 1920s. Aboriginal spiritual traditions are beginning to cross paths with the construction of a residential school, and ancient acts of violent vengeance are shaping the trajectory of events in the town 200 years later.