Choose Your Own Novel

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. This award-winning novel by the very Canadian (and very prolific) author about a fundamentalist regime that takes over the American government is still hailed as one of the most disturbing and important dystopian novels of our time. The novel focuses on the Handmaids, or women who become wardens of the state because of they are still fertile in a post-apocalyptic world. It will make you think about the current freedoms we take for granted in a new way. Caution: some sexual situations and coarse language. See the following link for a review of the novel: https://www.sfsite.com/11a/ht139.htm

Three Day Road by Joseph Boydon. This award-winning novel by first-time Canadian writer and professor takes place during WWI, in both northern Ontario and Europe. Told from the perspectives of Xavier Bird (an Ojibway-Cree soldier) and his aunt Niska, this novel provides a perspective of the “war to end all wars” not seen before. Caution: some graphic violence and sexual situations. See the following link for a review of the novel: http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,0_9780670063628,00.html

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. This debut novel by a real-life Afghan-American medical doctor takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan and is a story about the horrors of war, family and cultural obligations, friendship, and forgiveness (similar to Three Day Road). The story is narrated by Amir (a privileged, upper-class young Pashtun) who witnesses a terrible act happen to his best friend Hassan (a lower-class Hezara) and tries to atone for his inaction later in life. Caution: one graphic scene involving sexual violence. See the following link for a review of the novel: https://www.curledup.com/kiterun.htm

The Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. This fifth novel by the American writer (winner of several awards for her novels, includingThe Poisonwood Bible) takes place in modern-day Appalachia and weaves several stories (all involving some sort of love) and focuses on the complex relationships between humans, animals, and the land we share. If you like reading about nature, environmental conundrums, gorgeous imagery, and intense relationships, this is the novel for you. Caution: some graphic sexual situations. See the following link for a review of the novel: http://www.harpercollins.ca/book/index.aspx?isbn=9780060959036

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Made famous by the recent film version, this novel by the American author (a real-life survivor of rape) is told from the perspective of deceased 14-year-old Susie Salmon, a girl who is raped and murdered by her neighbour (you find out in the first chapter, so I swear I didn’t give away the ending!) In spite of its disturbing premise, The Lovely Bones is an often uplifting novel about family, love, accepting loss, and moving on. Caution: some graphic violence and sexual situations. https://www.curledup.com/luvbones.htm

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. This funny, descriptive, and poignant novel by the award-winning Chinese-American writer focuses on the lives of four families living in the San Francisco area. The story is told from the perspective of eight (that’s right) women: four mothers who left China during the Cultural Revolution (1949) and their American-born daughters. In spite of the hardships the mothers and daughters face (often with each other), this is ultimately a novel about how family and friendship give us strength, financial security, and hope in an uncertain world. Caution: some adult situations. See the following link for a review of the novel: http://www.tuvy.com/resource/books/j/Joy_Luck_Club.html

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje. Anil, a westernised Sri Lankan, is sent back to her home country by a Genevan Human Rights organisation to investigate claims of breaches of human rights. Teaming up with a government archaeologist, Sarah, she attempts to identify the body of a skeleton they find, thereby having proof of government committed atrocities and giving a symbolic voice to other 'disappeared'. https://www.enotes.com/anils-ghost-salem/anils-ghost

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just desserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his privates demons - and the unprediectable forces of nature and society - he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery. https://januarymagazine.com/fiction/shippingnews.html

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. It is the 'salad days' of the Second World War and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is serving out his time as part of the occupying forces on the Greek Island of Cephallonia. While the war is raging, things seem awkwardly serene from his agreeable posting, as Corelli is a kind, conscientious man who wants nothing more than peaceful war. A consummate musician, he passes time plucking his mandolin and courting the daughter of a citizen. Just as their love begins to blossom, the intensity of the war is turned up, bringing the savagery within a heartbeat of the island. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Corelli%27s_Mandolin

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd. Set in South Carolina in1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted 'stand-in mother', Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina - a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There, they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonnna who presides over their household. https://suemonkkidd.com/books/the-secret-life-of-bees/overview/

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. A Complicated Kindness, is a coming-of-age story that takes place in the late 1970's and early 1980's in East Village, a claustrophobic Mennonite community in rural Manitoba. The only business in town (not counting Jesus) is a factory where chickens are slaughtered, and the only pleasure is the anticipation of eternal rest. The novel is a series of flashbacks that revisit moments in the breakdown of her relationship with her family and of her family's relationship with the citizens of their town, who exclude sinners through a capricious process called shunning. http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=3948

Can you Hear the Nightbird Call? by Anita Rau Badami. Set in India and Canada, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? is the story of three women linked and destroyed by the political turmoil that sweeps through the Punjab first during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and then in the 1980s when the demand for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan comes into violent existence. http://canlit.ca/reviews/disasters_canadian_and_indian