Book Reviews

Democracy in Canada offers a bleak view of our core political and social institutions

Robyn Doolittle’s new book Had It Coming is an unflinching look at the #MeToo era

Wendy McGrath’s Santa Rosa trilogy is done, and proves why she’s a writer to pay attention to

Reading Lucy Ellmann’s 1,000-page stream of consciousness Ducks, Newburyport is a daunting – but rewarding – task

Rachel Cusk is an indelible presence in the personal essays of her new collection Coventry

Lynn Coady sounds the alarm on men behaving badly in new novel Watching You Without Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book The Water Dancer focuses on the power of stories

With new book The Wagers, Sean Michaels proves he’s Canadian literature’s sure bet

M.G. Vassanji’s novel A Delhi Obsession is an exploration of India and identity

Malcolm Gladwell on why we trust everyone even when we shouldn’t

Emma Donoghue’s latest novel Akin dips back into familiar themes of childhood

Back to Blakeney offers a reminder of the efficacy of Big Politics

John Zada’s search for Sasquatch chronicled in his new book In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond

Helen Knott’s new book offers astonishing insight into the promises and betrayals of addiction

Martha Nussbaum: A philosopher for troubled times

Steven Price’s Lampedusa is an evocative biographical novel on the writer of the bestselling Italian book The Leopard

With its examination of evangelists, Five Wives puts Joan Thomas in Alice Munro’s league

Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments is a thrilling – if lighter – sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale

Louise Penny’s A Better Man forecasts better days to come

Author Lori Lansens creates a reality a few election cycles removed from our own

Christy Ann Conlin’s Watermark examines the everyday tyrant and the marks they leave

David Szalay’s perplexing novel Turbulence struggles to take flight

Seven new and noteworthy fiction titles about South Africa

Good things come in small packages with the short stories of Little Bird Writing Contest

The characters in Elise Levine’s This Wicked Tongue have substance that will stick

Mike Jay’s Mescaline is a history of the psychedelic and its influence on Western culture

Whatever Gets You Through gives perspectives on the aftermath of sexual assault we rarely hear

Love from A to Z is a letter to more than just those who inhabit the book

Why haven’t Canadians claimed author Jill Ciment as their own?

Alix Ohlin shifts focus to nebulous forms of female relation in Dual Citizens

Where have all the fish gone? Daniel Pauly’s new book Vanishing Fish explores how to protect remaining marine ecosystems