We are thrilled to share that Liz Harmer’s STRANGE LOOPS, Kai Thomas’ IN THE UPPER COUNTRY and Paul B. Rainey’s WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME? published by Drawn & Quarterly have been chosen for the Globe & Mail’s Winter Reading List as two of 28 books to cozy up with this winter!
To read the full list, follow the link here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-winter-2023-books-to-read/
About STRANGE LOOPS:
A propulsive novel about the power and paradoxes of desire, from the acclaimed author of The Amateurs.
As small children, Francine and her twin Philip shared a seemingly unbreakable bond—but in adolescence the connection frayed, and in adulthood the siblings are locked in a repeating loop of complex, destructive emotions. Matters have reached a breaking point, and Francine, now in her thirties and the married mother of two small boys, is convinced that Philip’s teenaged infatuation with religion and subsequent, ongoing obsession with his sister’s “moral impropriety”—sparked by his discovery of her involvement in a forbidden relationship—are to blame.
As storm clouds of resentment and mutual betrayal gather ominously, threatening to upend both siblings’ lives and damage their families, Francine unexpectedly finds herself in a situation that mirrors her earlier transgression: stirred and unsettled by her attraction to a wildly inappropriate man. And the one person who suspects is the last person she trusts—her disapproving twin.
With the plot twists of a thriller, lean prose crackling with intensity, and big ideas explored alongside the messy truth of human relationships, Strange Loops simultaneously shocks and thrills the reader, all while asking vital questions about faith, love, and desire.
About the author:
Liz Harmer is the author of The Amateurs, a New Face of Fiction. She is working on a second novel, and a story collection, which was a finalist for the 2014 Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award. Her stories and essays have been published in The Malahat Review, PRISM, Grain, The New Quarterly, Little Brother and other journals. She won a National Magazine Award in Personal Journalism and was nominated for another NMA, both in 2014. She was longlisted for the CBC short story award and a finalist for a Glimmer Train Prize, and was on the editorial board at echolocation between 2013 and 2015. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, where her mentor was Charles Foran. She has also studied with David Bezmozgis, Richard Greene, Robert McGill and Richard Bausch.
About IN THE UPPER COUNTRY:
The fates of two unforgettable women—one just beginning a journey of reckoning and self-discovery and the other completing her life’s last vital act—intertwine in this sweeping, powerful novel set at the terminus of the Underground Railroad.
In the 1800s in Dunmore, a Canadian town settled by people fleeing enslavement in the American south, young Lensinda Martin works for a crusading Black journalist.
One night, a neighboring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman who recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before she can be condemned for the crime.
But the old woman doesn’t want to confess. Instead she proposes a barter: a story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of tales that reveal an interwoven history of Black and Indigenous peoples in a wide swath of what is called North America.
As time runs out, Lensinda is challenged to uncover her past and face her fears in order to make good on the bargain of a story for a story. And it seems the old woman may carry a secret that could shape Lensinda’s destiny.
Traveling along the path of the Underground Railroad from Virginia to Michigan, from the Indigenous nations around the Great Lakes, to the Black refugee communities of Canada, In the Upper Country weaves together unlikely stories of love, survival, and familial upheaval that map the interconnected history of the peoples of North America in an entirely new and resonant way.
About the author:
Kai Thomas is a writer, carpenter, and land steward. He is Afro-Canadian, born and raised in Ottawa, descended from Trinidad and the British Isles. In the Upper Country is his first novel.
Liz and Kai are represented by Samantha Haywood.
About WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME?
Claire and Mark are in the doldrums of an unhappy marriage. She doesn’t get out of her bathrobe and chain-smokes while slumped on the couch. Mark has lost track of the days and can’t get the kids to school on time. They’ve lost interest in family and have pizza and Chinese food delivered every night. Mark sleeps on the couch and has trouble remembering his son’s name. He feels like a fraud at work but somehow succeeds. Claire stalks an ex-boyfriend. How could he have left her to this life?
Claire and Mark are both plagued by the idea that this is all a dream. Didn’t they have different lives? When reports of an imminent nuclear war come on the radio, the truth begins to dawn on them: This is not the life they chose.
A couple struggles through their unhappy marriage in this dark science-fiction comedy. Why Don’t You Love Me? is a pitch-black comedy about marriage, alcoholism, depression, and mourning lost opportunities. Paul B. Rainey has created a hilariously terrifying alternate reality where confusion and pain might lead people to make bad choices but might also eventually led to freedom… maybe.
About the author:
Paul B. Rainey is a British cartoonist who has been making comics for decades. In 2015, his graphic novel There’s No Time Like the Present was published by Escape Books. He has been a regular contributing cartoonist to Viz since 2013. His creations include Peter the Slow Eater, 14 Year Old Stand–Up Comedian, and Audrey Pemberton. He won the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize in 2020 with the strip Similar to But Not. In it, he recounts meeting Madonna in his local pub in 1985. He has written, drawn, and self-published many comics, including Pope Francis Goes to The Dentist, Journey into Indignity, and Gripe Night.
About Drawn & Quarterly:
Over the past thirty years, Drawn & Quarterly has grown from a single-issue magazine to an internationally renowned publisher of the world’s best cartoonists. D+Q has published many North American luminaries of the medium including Adrian Tomine, Lynda Barry, Nick Drnaso, Kate Beaton, Chester Brown, Aminder Dhaliwal, Ebony Flowers, and Seth, as well as international authors including Tove Jansson (Finland); Guy Delisle (France); Tom Gauld (UK); Astrid Lindgren (Sweden); Yoshiharu Tsuge (Japan); Rutu Modan (Israel); Shigeru Mizuki (Japan); Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (Korea); Zuo Ma (China); and many more cartoonists from across the globe. The company’s dedication to high production values, editorial integrity, and artistic autonomy has led to it being described by Time as “the most elegant comics publisher in North America.” D+Q books have been nominated for the Man Booker Prize, Governor General’s Literary Awards, Giller Prize, NAACP Image Award, Lambda Literary Award, the Story Prize, and many Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz Awards.
The company operates two storefronts, La Librairie D+Q and La Petite Librairie D+Q, in the Mile End neighbourhood of Montreal, the very same neighbourhood where the company was founded in 1989 by Chris Oliveros.
Drawn & Quarterly is represented by Evan Brown and Samantha Haywood.