Favourite Canadian Authors or Books by Canadian Writers

firedrake

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'The Eagle and the Raven' by Pauline Gedge, brilliant historical fiction about the last stand of the British Celtic tribes against the Roman Empire.

Anne of Green Gables, sorry, I just love those books.
 

KTC

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'The Eagle and the Raven' by Pauline Gedge, brilliant historical fiction about the last stand of the British Celtic tribes against the Roman Empire.

Anne of Green Gables, sorry, I just love those books.


I love the story about Gedge. She won Alberta’s Search for a First Novelist Contest in 1977. The rest, as they say, is history.
 

firedrake

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I love the story about Gedge. She won Alberta’s Search for a First Novelist Contest in 1977. The rest, as they say, is history.

Wow! I didn't know that. 'The Eagle and the Raven' is a book that I never tire of reading. I'll dig it out every couple of years and read it again. I love the last line...

"In the swirling, Autumn mists of Albion the light of freedom flickered and went out." Just brilliant.
 

KTC

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That is a good line. Yep, she was an unknown writer entering a contest and made it big.
 

brainstorm77

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Bernice Morgan's Random Passage and Waiting for Time books.
 

TheRightEyedDeer

the land of black flies
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illiterwrite

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The Diviners, by Margaret Laurence
Clara Callan, by Richard Wright
That Summer in Paris, by Morley Callaghan
 
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KTC

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Oh...and...a few AWers have great Canadian books...

Belle Falls by Sherri Vanderveen
Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress
Before I Wake by Robert Wiersema

And Sherri and Adrienne both have new books which I am looking forward to reading. And Robert needs to be prodded.
 

Lyra Jean

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I have to second Anne of Green Gables. That series made me want to become Canadian.

Does anyone know is Emily of New Moon a series or a stand alone?

I remember reading another YA historical set in Canada. It was about a mail order bride named Jeanne who got married to French-Canadian named Jean. In order to survive an Indian attack she cut off her own hair and hung it in the yard to make it look like the Indians were already there and had scalped her. Sorry I don't remember the title or the author :(
 

nevada

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oh i forgot a great book

DeNiro's Game by Rawi Hage. Loved it. He's got a new book out, cockroach. i must get that.
 

KTC

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you know it's true
 

Miguelito

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I'm not a huge fan of Margaret Atwood, but Oryx and Crake is a fantastic book. So good I read it front to back, then read it again.
 

Aschenbach

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I'm from the UK but studied in Canada for a year. Lit wasn't my major but I made sure I got on a Can Lit course.
I had a great teacher and discovered many fine authors. Ostenso, Laurence, Atwood, Ondaatje etc. I also loved the earlier stuff, the explorer and settler accounts, pre and post confederation, right up to the (post) moderns.

Unfortunately I couldn't take all these great books home with me, because I couldn't fit them in my suitcase, and was too broke to pay the extra baggage allowance.

And to make things worse, I lost my reading list from the Can Lit course. Most of the books I have since tracked down, but some of the more obscure ones I cannot, despite my best efforts on Amazon/google/wikipedia.

Can you name this book? Sorry for the terribly vague description, but here goes...it was set late 19th/early 20th century, and described a family dynasty in an industrial town that started small but grew larger as the years passed. It was definitely British Canadian rather than French Canadian. I remember very vividly descriptions of the town and the social customs. Almost like Jane Austen, but far up north.

Sorry I can't be more specific. But if anyone can put me out of my misery I will be very grateful.
 

childeroland

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L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books. (The Emily books are a series)

Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red

Daryl Hine
 

StephanieFox

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Canadian Farley Mowat is one of my favorite authors.

My favorites of his are
Never Cry Wolf
The Siberians
The Dog Who Wouldn't Be

He's written dozens of books, however, including some children's novels.
 

zenwriter

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I just read Vincent Lam's Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. Great stuff.
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

aka Sadistic Mistress Mi-chan
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Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry is a great trilogy. Had me crying at the end.
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

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Different strokes for different folks I guess :) I didn't see anything wrong with it, but I do plan to get more of his books.
 

darrtwish

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Margaret Atwood is a must. But I absolutely adore Gordon Korman books. I've pretty much grown up reading Gordon Korman.