Congratulations to Jessica Grant, Lisa Moore, Michael Crummey, and Margaret Sweatman - all who had books chosen by The Globe and Mail as the best of the year!

A review in The Toronto Star describes Stephen Finucan's "formidable job" in The Fallen:

" ... The Fallen feels broad and ambitious – but never overarchingly so, which is why it works so well. Finucan, who has previously published two story collections, has done his homework on a compelling period in history, but he wisely resists any temptation to flaunt it."

Congratulations to Michael Crummey and David Adams Richards!

Galore and God Is. continue to sit on the national bestsellers' list.

God Is. by David Adams Richards was published last week by Doubleday Canada and received some thoughtful reviews over the weekend, many of them reflecting on the author's previous novels:

"As a storyteller, he has a better ear for speech patterns, a better eye for details of dress and manners, and a more realistic feeling for the effects of physical and emotional deprivation than any contemporary" -- The Globe and Mail 

"Author David Adams Richards is regarded as a rare voice of moral and spiritual certainty in the Canadian literary scene, rejecting the postmodern ambiguities of most of his fellow novelists and earning comparisons to Hardy, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy" -- The Toronto Star

"Richards has a knack for surprising fans with the unexpected, but his latest book is like a bolt from the blue" -- The Telegraph-Journal 

"David Adams Richards holds a peculiar place in Canada’s literary pantheon. Going by honours and recognition, he’s an insider’s insider ... But in just about everything truly important he’s as outside the tent as can be" -- Macleans

"A gut-wrenching psychological journey into his own heart" -- The Vancouver Sun

Read an excerpt of the book in The Globe and Mail.

The acclaim keeps coming for Michael Crummey's new novel, Galore. Read a sample of rave reviews and profiles:

"One of those books that is so complete that it takes on a life of its own" - Steven Galloway, The Globe & Mail

"A gripping tale of outport Newfoundland" - Macleans

"Harsh realities of life on The Rock" - The Toronto Star

"Crummey soaks up his storied past" - The Globe & Mail 

Michael Crummey talks to The National Post about his wondrous new novel, Galore.

Rave reviews have been appearing for acclaimed author Lisa Moore's new novel February:

"Moore offers us, elegantly, exultantly, the very consciousness of her characters. In this way, she does more than make us feel for them. She makes us feel what they feel, which is, I think, the point of literature and maybe even the point of being human." - The Globe and Mail

"Moore never errs on the side of sentimentality; all of Helen's anxieties are revealed in concrete, everyday realities. Loneliness is hard to write about without becoming maudlin or clichéd. But Moore seems to understand this very human facility, describing the unconscious ways we sometimes try to avoid feeling overwhelmed by it." - The Ottawa Citizen

"Moore's writing resembles poetry in its frequent use of sentence fragments and the way she builds a scene through the accumulation of images. She expertly captures her characters' physical surroundings in sharp-edged fragments of colour and sensation." - Winnipeg Free Press

Also, listen to Lisa Moore speak with Shelagh Rogers on CBC Radio, and read profiles of the author and February in The Globe and Mail and the The Chronicle Herald.

The shortlist for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award was announced, and included authors Claudia Dey for her novel Stunt and Joan Thomas for Reading By Lightning. Congratulations to all the finalists! 

Pasha Malla is the winner of the 2009 Trillium Book Award for The Withdrawal Method (House of Anansi). The Award is highly regarded nationally and internationally, and previous winners have included world renowned authors such as Margaret Atwood, Wayson Choy, Alice Munro, and Michael Ondaatje.