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From new books by Heather O’Neill and Sheila Heti, here are the Canadian titles The Globe’s Marsha Lederman can’t wait to read in 2022

It’s hard to feel optimistic about anything these days, but at least there are good books to look forward to in the new year.

Here are some of the Canadian titles I can’t wait to read in 2022.

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The Maid
People Change

The Maid by Nita Prose (Viking Canada, Jan. 4)

Nita Prose is the pen name of Simon & Schuster Canada vice-president and editorial director Nita Pronovost. Her debut novel prompted a bidding war and Universal Pictures acquired the film rights, with Florence Pugh set to star in the murder mystery.

People Change by Vivek Shraya (Penguin Canada, Jan. 4)

A slim volume that is a meditation on change, by a master of the art of reinvention – pop star, author, publisher, theatre artist.


Lost in the Valley of Death
Tides

Lost in the Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in the Himalayas by Harley Rustad (Knopf Canada, Jan. 11)

Big Lonely Doug author Harley Rustad returns with this narrative non-fiction account of the unsolved disappearance of a U.S. backpacker in India.

Tides by Sara Freeman (Hamish Hamilton, Jan. 18)

In this debut novel, Freeman unravels the story of Mara, a woman dealing with a sudden and devastating loss – in short, evocative passages à la Jenny Offill.


When We Lost Our Heads
Pure Colour

When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill (HarperCollins Canada, Feb. 1)

A complicated friendship between two girls in 19th-century Montreal leads to high-stakes consequences. From the Giller-shortlisted author of The Girl Who Was Saturday Night and Daydreams of Angels.

Pure Colour by Sheila Heti (Knopf Canada, Feb. 15)

A young woman leaves home to attend art school, where the world opens up in myriad ways. From the author of Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?


Run Towards Danger
Burning Questions

Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley (Hamish Hamilton, March 1)

In her debut book, the screenwriter, director and actor shares what she calls the most important stories of her life. “The ones I have avoided, the ones I haven’t told, the ones that have kept me awake on countless nights.”

Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004-2021 by Margaret Atwood (McClelland & Stewart, March 1)

This collection of more than 50 essays answers burning questions such as how can we live on our planet? And what do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?


Stray Dogs
Jameela Green Ruins Everything

Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage (Knopf Canada, March 1)

The Giller- and Governor-General’s Award-shortlisted author sets each of the 11 stories in this collection in a different city including Baghdad, Tokyo and Montreal.

Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz (Simon & Schuster Canada, March 8)

The debut novel by the creator of Little Mosque on the Prairie features a disillusioned Muslim-American memoirist who is instructed by her mosque’s imam to perform a good deed.


305 Lost Buildings
My Face in the Light

305 Lost Buildings of Canada by Raymond Biesinger and Alex Bozikovic (Goose Lane, March 22)

Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail’s architecture critic, teams up with Biesinger, who uses archival photography, blueprints and written reports to illustrate lost wonders from across the country.

My Face in the Light by Martha Schabas (Knopf Canada, April 12)

In this second highly anticipated novel by The Globe and Mail’s former dance critic, a young woman abandons her marriage and theatre career to pursue unresolved questions from her past.


Sea of Tranquility
Invisible Boy

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (HarperCollins, April 5)

Characters in this time-travel novel from the author of Station Eleven and Glass Hotel include the writer of a bestselling novel about a fictional pandemic, who embarks on a galactic book tour during an actual pandemic.

Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney (Patrick Crean Editions, Sept. 13)

The Vancouver journalist, a transracial adoptee, explores his journey to Black consciousness in B.C.’s Bible Belt.

Sideways by Josh O’Kane (Random House Canada, Sept. 13)

An investigation into Google’s affiliate Sidewalk Labs project for Toronto, from The Globe and Mail reporter who covered the doomed urban experiment.


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