Archives: Books

by Dina Del Bucchia Dark, funny, charming and set in the near future, Tougher Than the Rest uses comic premises to explore what is increasingly untenable about contemporary urban life, what destroys our abilities to be fully human, and how we resist in small and grand ways. These stories feature women protagonists at different stages of life, and examines class, technology, white feminism, love, friendship, the loneliness of the world, and our ability to find connections and meaning. Taking each title from a classic rock radio song by a male musical artist, this collection reinvents the meaning of each. Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest” is about a low-income gig worker whose job is to moderate comments on YouTube. “Night Moves” is transformed from Bob Seger’s sexually intense song about youthful sex without strings into a story about a lonely working class woman who buys a second-hand sex robot at the Salvation Army. In “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” a woman grieving her husband’s potential suicide encounters talking animals and cryptids who become the tough love and reality she needs. Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again” follows a well-intentioned but oblivious activist whose efforts risk repeating the humiliation and ostracization from her past. And, Aerosmith’s “Dream On” is the inspiration for the final story, about a social media influencer who undergoes a drastic cosmetic surgery to make her face literally adaptable to making more money for advertisers. Threaded through every story is a pervasive real estate developer whose existence touches the lives of every character in shocking, devastating and destructive ways. Publication: Fall 2026 Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press Rights sold: World English: Arsenal Pulp Press

by Felix Wong On May 26, 1991, Lauda Air Flight 004 broke apart mid-flight shortly after a routine layover in Bangkok, raining cargo, metal, jet fuel, and bodies over the mountains of Suphan Buri province in what remains Thailand’s deadliest aviation incident to date. When Felix Wong turns twenty-five, he chances upon a family secret: among the victims of Flight 004 was an aunt he never met, along with her newly-wed husband. Why didn’t his family tell him sooner? And why are they still refusing to speak to him about it now, three decades later? To untangle the past, Felix decides to trace the trajectory of his aunt’s life, from the crash site in Suphan Buri, where fragments of the plane can still be seen today, to his birthplace of Hong Kong, a city caught in the crossfire of the 2019  anti-extradition bill protests and on the cusp of a global pandemic. What he expects to be a  straightforward trip, however, grows unexpectedly personal. As he balances the  competing demands of his Chinese heritage and Canadian upbringing, he finds himself trapped in a web of family deceptions and personal secrets that challenge the very core of his identity. When an encounter with a mysterious girl threatens to evolve into romance, he must ultimately ask himself, where does he truly consider home? Interweaving personal experience with interviews of family members whose lives have been irreversibly altered by Lauda Air Flight 004, Shall We Talk is a coming-of-age memoir about Felix Wong’s quest to piece together a fractured family history and figure out his place in the world. Publication: Fall 2027 Publisher: ECW Press Rights sold: World: ECW Press

by Kate Cayley The day begins ordinarily, and by evening, someone is dead. Property takes place over the course of a single spring day in an uneasily gentrifying urban neighbourhood, through several points of view, including Nat, a queer mother of two, the younger Maddy, a failed actress and stay-at-home mum, with whom Nat has an unstable and competitive friendship, and Ilya, a young man working on the renovation of a derelict house next door to Maddy’s following a catastrophic accident at an industrial building site. Paths cross and re-cross on the small network of streets. People shop for groceries, have small and ambiguously fraught interactions with their neighbours, take their children to buy treats, work on draining the flooding basement of an old house. A group of men drink beer on a porch. A lonely man wanders. Children observe adults without the adults noticing. Threats are suspected, never from the right place. As the tension builds, the water rises in the basement of the old house, and conflicts of personality, privilege, and past history explode. Property is a literary novel that blends emotional complexity with elements of satire to explore class, environmental anxiety, the guilty navel-gazing of affluent liberals, marriage, queer respectability, friendship, the shifting identities of city neighbourhoods, loneliness, the real and imaginary perils of raising children, and the ways that we hurt one another without meaning to. Publication: October 2025 Publisher: Coach House Books Rights sold: World: Coach House Books “Beautifully bleak and ultimately tragic, Property’s sole consolation results from its own singular beauty, which is paradoxical in an account of the human condition that disturbs with such grim certitude.” –Quill and Quire “Cayley masterfully renders each character’s inner world, showing how their fears and prejudices are amplified by loneliness. It’s an unflinching tale of a community’s fragile bonds.” –Publishers Weekly “Holy crap! What a novel. It’s about a day but also about deep time. About knowing your neighbours and not having the least clue about your neighbours — or, frankly, your loved ones. Keenly observed, superbly crafted, taut, surprising, unflinching, tender, sharply circumscribed and truly expansive, Property is a wonder.” –Anne Fleming, author of Curiosities: A Novel “Kate Cayley’s Property is both minutely observed and movingly kaleidoscopic, a meditation on fate, accident, free will, and of the elusive and illusive qualities of selfhood. Its questions and hopes—layered into a single day on a single street—are a living, breathing presence.” –Madeleine Thien, author of The Book of Records

by Ryad Assani-Razaki —Winner, Robert Cliche Prize 2011— —Finalist, 2011 Governor Generals Award for French-Language Fiction— In an unnamed African country devoured by rampant urbanization and haunted by the mirages of Western prosperity, where for a few CFA francs a child can be bought and sold for slavery, Toumani’s earliest education is in the tolerance of suffering. He endures one master then the next, holding his survival—his very self—with open hands. For Iman, a black and white biracial boy with an elusive presence, the only viable option appears to be an escape to bountiful Europe, where everything must be easier. Obsessed with this idyllic elsewhere to the point of losing himself completely, he remains, for those close to him, an object of fascination difficult to define. When Iman reaches out his hand to rescue Toumani from certain death, he sets in motion a friendship that may satisfy their need for connection but cannot fundamentally change their circumstances. What is the point of survival without hope for a more livable future? And what happens to them when they both love the same girl? In this stunning translation of Ryad Assani-Razaki’s award-winning debut novel, dreaming is luxury that few can afford. And yet, however inadvisedly, Iman dreams. Publication: Spring 2025 Publisher: House of Anansi Press Rights sold: North America, English: House of Anansi Press World, French: l’Hexagone German: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach “[The Hand of Iman] confirms the value of this writer’s work. A strong work endowed with an extraordinary sensitivity, which takes into account both the commitment—child trafficking, the burdens of the colonial past, the condition of women, emigration, run through the novel, and the aesthetic requirements that literary creation assumes.” –Le devoir “[…] a work as layered as it is urgent …” –The Globe and Mail

by Renée Sylvestre-Williams When it comes to finances, single people can’t seem to get a break: whether that’s taxes, housing, retirement, or something as simple as a hotel room. With The Singles Tax, Renée Sylvestre-Williams uses her expertise as a financial journalist and a single person to explain how things got this way and what we can do to manage that tax, from personal finance strategies to pushing to change the tax code. Each chapter provides thought-provoking insights and answers questions such as: Why can’t two people just live together and be considered an economic unit? Can people get married to take advantage of the few tax benefits for couples? Will that lead to rom-com shenanigans? Can single people ever retire? Why did housing get so expensive, and are solo earners doomed to roommates? Do they need a will? Sylvestre-Williams also shares stories, trials, and triumphs from other singles and advice from financial experts on how to navigate the systemic disadvantages of singledom. Delivering friendly, battle-tested advice, The Singles Tax is the ultimate intersectional guide for single people who want to take control of their financial lives and build a secure financial future. Publication: January 2026 Publisher: ECW Press Rights sold: North America, English and Canadian French: ECW Press

by AGA Wilmot A queer paranormal psychological horror novel, in the style of showrunner Mike Flannagan, showing the complex real-life terror inherent in grief and mental illness. After the tragic death of their father and surviving a life-threatening eating disorder, 18-year-old Ellis moves with their mother to the small town of Black Stone, seeking a simpler life and some space to recover. But Black Stone feels off; it’s a disquieting place, one that’s surrounded by towns with some of the highest death rates in the country. It doesn’t help that everyone says Ellis’s new house is haunted. And Ellis has started to believe them: they see pulsing veins in the walls of their bedroom and specters in dark corners of the cellar. They soon discover Black Stone, and their house in particular, is the battleground in a decades-long spectral war, one that will claim their family — and the town — if it’s allowed to continue. Withered is queer psychological horror, a compelling tale that tackles important issues of mental health in the way that only horror can: by delving deep into them, cracking them open, and exposing their gruesome entrails. Publication: April 2024 Publisher: ECW Press Rights sold: World: ECW Press “Ellis’s recovery from their eating disorder cunningly intertwines with the ghost story as Wilmot interrogates the human desire for control over one’s body, natural forces, and even life and death.” –Publishers Weekly “Withered is a slow burn psychological horror that will consume its readers through its exploration of the toxicity and timelessness of grief and the way it chokes all those it touches. The time-paused town of Black Stone reveals to readers what it means to conquer death and what it means to be alive. Wilmot elegantly illuminates the power of art and its impact on identity and memory, while painting a vivid definition of a ghost town with their prose.” –Ai Jiang, Nebula finalist and author of Linghun and I Am Ai “Wilmot’s fast-paced psychological-horror novel offers a fresh spin on the haunted-house trope, with well-drawn queer and trans representation at its center. This thought-provoking blend of psychological and supernatural horror will appeal to fans of Stranger Things and allegorical haunted-house novels like Carissa Orlando’s The September House.” –Booklist “Withered is a compassionate exploration of mental health, hauntings, and the way grief can pull, stretch, or erode our sense of self. Told with wit and warmth, it is a triumph of love in the face of heartache and death.” –Suzan Palumbo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award finalist

by Hajer Nakua and Farah Qaiser Everyone can see themselves in science! Khadija is inspired by her visit to the science fair. There are so many different scientists all wearing safety goggles and lab coats! But how come none of them are wearing a hijab? After watching a scientist carry out the elephant toothpaste experiment, Khadija attempts to recreate it at home with mixed (and messy!) results. Surrounded by her family as they celebrate Eid, Khadija tries again…. “Salaam everyone, and Eid Mubarak!” she cries. “When I grow up, I’m going to be a scientist!” Publication: February 2024 Publisher: Second Story Press Rights sold: World: Second Story Press    

by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross A cheeky debut of short fictions exploring the pitfalls and minor triumphs of the creative process. Equal parts melody and malaise, The Longest Way to Eat a Melon charts the activities of a cast of speakers who all grapple in their own ways with what it takes to conjure a self in the midst of discordance. A brain argues with a non-brain about how to remain productive from a place of exhaustion; two supernaturally inclined twins named Han are separated at birth; and an emerging artist overwhelmed by possibility considers how best to transform a melon into a breakthrough work of art. Incorporating elements of fable, surrealism, satire, and art and cultural criticism, these stories have a playful peculiarity to them, an interweaving of self-deprecation and curiosity, of woe and hope, of absurdity and humanity. Reader, you will want to savour every bite. Publication: Summer 2025 Publisher: Sarabande Books Rights sold: North America: Sarabande Books “Inventive and charming, these stories offer a fishbowl view of what it is to be plunked into adulthood in these absurd, impossible times.” –Lucy Corin, author of The Swank Hotel “I’ve been a fan of Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross’s writing for years and am so happy to see her debut collection cracking into the world. The stories in The Longest Way to Eat a Melon, like most of my favorite stories, feel as if they’ve been written from some alternate dimension just to the side of our own—they’re strange and smart and funny and true. Read them, and then we can all dream against capitalism together.” –Danielle Dutton, author of Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other “The turns in Ross’s smart, tender, darkly hilarious narratives are dazzling. At times we sail right off the road, and the beautiful thing about this book is, we survive it every time. These are fables for the future, full of hope.” –River Halen, author of Dream Rooms “A richly layered text imbued with wit and charm. Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross is an artist who breaks the mundanity of everyday life into artifacts. I was brought to the center of a gallery where curated notes of familiarity, the thoughts beneath my thoughts, guided me to reinterpret all that was around me. The Longest Way to Eat a Melon transforms everydayness into a metaphor. The meaning of life and its multitudes dance quietly underneath.” –Sheung-King, author of Batshit Seven

by Sheung-King —Winner, 2024 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize— From Canada Reads-nominated author Sheung-King comes a satirical novel about a millennial living through the Hong Kong protests, as he struggles to make sense of modern life and the parts of himself. Glen Wu (aka Glue) couldn’t care less about his job. He’s returned to Hong Kong to teach English, just to placate his parents. But he shows up hungover to class, barely stays awake, and prefers to spend his time smoking up at Shenzhen Bay until dawn breaks. As he watches the city he loves fall—the protests, the brutal arrests—life continues around him. So he drinks more, picks more fights with his drug dealer friend, thinks loftier thoughts about colonialism and Frantz Fanon. The very little he does care about: his sister, who deals with Hong Kong’s demise by getting engaged to a rich immigration consultant; his on-and-off-again girlfriend who steals things from him; and memories of someone he once met in Canada… When the government tightens its grip, language starts to lose all meaning for Glue, and he’s pulled into an unseemly venture, ultimately culminating in an act of violence. Inventive and utterly irresistible, Batshit Seven is Sheung-King’s bold take on Asian male identity. It’s an ode to a beloved city, an indictment of the cycles of colonialism, and a reminder of the beautiful things left under the hype of commodified living. Publication: February 2024 Publisher: Penguin Canada Rights sold: World: Penguin Canada