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Saturday, July 1, 2017

On Canada's 150th Birthday: Schatje's 150 Must-Read Canadian Fiction Books



I was blessed with the greatest good fortune when I was born in Canada.  Today is my country’s 150th birthday and in honour of the occasion, I’m listing 150 Canadian novels/short story collections everyone should read.  The authors all call Canada home or have lived here for an extended period of time.  

The books are listed alphabetically by author’s surname.  I’ve limited myself to a maximum of five books per author; if other of the author’s books are also worth investigating, I’ve placed an asterisk (*) by the writer’s name.

                Anderson-Dargatz, Gail
1.                            The Cure for Death by Lightning
                                A Recipe for Bees
                Atwood, Margaret*                       
                                The Handmaid’s Tale
                                Alias Grace
                                The Blind Assassin
                                The Robber Bride
                                Oryx and Crake
                Badami, Rita Rau*                             
                                Tamarind Mem
                                The Hero's Walk
                Baldwin, Shauna  Singh                 
10.                          What the Body Remembers
                                The Tiger Claw
                Beresford-Howe, Constance
                                The Book of Eve
                Boyden, Joseph                                               
                                Three Day Road
                                Through Black Spruce
                                The Orenda
                Bradley, Alan*
                                The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
                Burnard, Bonnie
                                A Good House
                Callaghan, Morley
                                Such Is My Beloved
                                The Loved and the Lost
                Clarke, Austin
20.                          The Polished Hoe
                Cohen, Leonard
                                Beautiful Losers
                Cohen, Matt
                                Elizabeth and After
                Connelly, Karen
                                The Lizard Cage
                Crummey, Michael
                                River Thieves
                                The Wreckage
                                Galore
                                Sweetland
                Davies, Robertson*
                                Fifth Business
                                The Manticore
 30.                          World of Wonders
                Donoghue, Emma
                                Room
                Ekbäck, Cecilia
                                Wolf Winter
                                The Midnight Sun
                Engel, Marian
                                Bear
                Findley, Timothy*
                                The Wars
                                Headhunter
                                The Piano Man's Daughter
                                Pilgrim
                Gallant, Mavis
                                The Selected Stories of Mavis Gallant
                Galloway, Steven
40.                          The Cellist of Sarajevo
                Govier, Katherine
                                Angel Walk
                Gowdy, Barbara
                                The White Bone
                Gruen, Sara
                                Water for Elephants
                Hay, Elizabeth
                                A Student of Weather
                                Late Nights on Air
                                Alone in the Classroom
                                His Whole Life
                Hébert, Anne
                                Kamouraska
                Highway, Thomson
                                The Kiss of the Fur Queen
                Hill, Lawrence
50.                           The Book of Negroes
                                The Illegal
                Irani, Anosh
                                The Parcel
                Irving, John*
                                A Prayer for Owen Meany
                                The Cider House Rules
                                A Son of the Circus
                Itani, Frances
                                Deafening
                                Remembering the Bones
                                Requiem
                                Tell
                Johnston, Wayne*
60.                           The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
                                The Navigator of New York
                                The Custodian of Paradise
                                A World Elsewhere
                                The Son of a Certain Woman
                Kogawa, Joy
                                Obasan
                Lansens, Lori
                                Rush Home Road
                                The Girls
                                The Mountain Story
                Laurence, Margaret*
                                The Stone Angel
70.                           A Jest of God
                                The Diviners
                Lawson, Mary
                                Crow Lake
                                The Other Side of the Bridge
                                Road Ends
                Leacock, Stephen
                                Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
                MacDonald, Ann-Marie
                                Fall on Your Knees
                                The Way the Crow Flies
                MacIntyre, Linden
                                The Long Stretch
                                The Bishop’s Man
80.                           Why Men Lie
                MacLeod, Alistair
                                No Great Mischief
                MacLennan, Hugh
                                Two Solitudes
                Martel, Yann
                                The Life of Pi
                McKay, Ami
                                The Birth House
                                The Virgin Cure
                McLean, Stuart*
                                Stories from the Vinyl Cafe
                Mitchell, W. O.
                                Who Has Seen the Wind
                Mistry, Rohinton
                                Such a Long Journey
                                A Fine Balance
90.                           Family Matters
                Montgomery, Lucy Maud*
                                Anne of Green Gables
                Moore, Lisa
                                February
                                Caught
                Morgan, Bernice
                                Random Passage
                Morrissey, Donna*
                                Downhill Chance
                                Sylvanus Now
                                What They Wanted
                                The Deception of Livvy Higgs  
                                The Fortunate Brother
                Munro, Alice*
100.                         Alice Munro’s Best Selected Stories
                Ondaatje, Michael
                                In the Skin of a Lion
                                The English Patient
                                Anil's Ghost
                                Divisadero
                Ozeki, Ruth
                                A Tale for the Time Being
                Proulx, Annie
                                The Shipping News
                Pullinger, Kate
                                The Mistress of Nothing
                Quarrington, Paul
                                Whale Music
                Ricci, Nino
                                Lives of the Saints
                Richards, David Adams*
110.                         Mercy Among the Children
                                River of the Broken-Hearted
                                The Friends of Meager Fortune
                                The Lost Highway
                                Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul
                Richardson, Bill
                                Bachelor Brothers’ Bed & Breakfast
                Richler, Mordecai
                                The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
                                Barney’s Version
                Robinson, Eden
                                Monkey Beach
                Roy, Gabrielle
                                The Tin Flute
120.                         Where Nests the Water Hen (La Petite Poule d'eau)
                                Street of Riches (Rue Deschambault
                                Windflower (La Rivière sans repos)
                Selvadurai, Shyam
                                The Hungry Ghosts
                Shields, Carol
                                Swann: A Mystery
                                The Stone Diaries
                                Larry's Party
                Smart, Elizabeth
                                By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
                Thien, Madeleine
                                Do Not Say We Have Nothing
                Toews, Miriam
                                A Complicated Kindness
130.                         All My Puny Sorrows
                Urquhart, Jane*
                                Away
                                The Underpainter
                                The Stone Carvers
                                A Map of Glass
                                Sanctuary Line
                Vanderhaeghe, Guy
                                The Englishman's Boy 
                                The Last Crossing
                                A Good Man
                Vassanji, M. G.
                                The Book of Secrets
140.                         The Assassin's Song
                Wagamese, Richard
                                Indian Horse
                                Medicine Walk
                Warren, Dianne
                                Cool Water
                Winter, Kathleen
                                Annabel
                Wright, Richard B.
                                Clara Callan
                                Adultery
                                October
                                Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard
                York, Alissa
                                Mercy
150.                         Effigy


                                                   HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CANADA!

 

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