Sharon Bala, The Boat People

By the winner of the 2017 Journey Prize, and inspired by a real incident, The Boat People is a gripping, morally complex novel about a group of refugees who survive a perilous ocean voyage to reach Canada—only to face the threat of deportation and accusations of terrorism in their new land.

When the rusty cargo ship carrying Mahindan and five hundred fellow refugees reaches the shores of British Columbia, the young father is overcome with relief: he and his six-year-old son can finally put Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war behind them and begin new lives. Instead, the group is thrown into prison, with government officials and news headlines speculating that hidden among the “boat people” are members of a terrorist militia. As suspicion swirls and interrogation mounts, Mahindan fears that the desperate actions he took to survive and escape Sri Lanka now jeopardize his and his son’s chances for asylum.

Told through the alternating perspectives of Mahindan, his lawyer Priya—who reluctantly represents the migrants—and Grace, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian adjudicator who must decide Mahindan’s fate, The Boat People offers a deeply compassionate lens through which to view the current refugee crisis. Inspired by real events, with scenes that move between the eerie beauty of northern Sri Lanka and combative refugee hearings in Vancouver, Sharon Bala gives us an unforgettable and necessary story for our times.

David Demchuk, The Bone Mother

Three neighbouring villages on the Ukrainian-Romanian border are the final refuge for the last of the mythical creatures of Eastern Europe. Now, on the eve of the war that may eradicate their kind—and with the ruthless Night Police descending upon their sanctuary—they tell their stories and confront their destinies. Eerie and unsettling like the best fairy tales, these incisor-sharp portraits of ghosts, witches, sirens, and seers—and the mortals who live at their side and in their thrall—will chill your marrow and tear at your heart.

Omar El Akkad, American War

An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle—a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself.

Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. Telling her story is her nephew, Benjamin Chestnut, born during war as one of the Miraculous Generation and now an old man confronting the dark secret of his past: his family’s role in the conflict and, in particular, that of his aunt, a woman who saved his life while destroying untold others.

Michael Kaan, The Water Beetles

December, 1941. As the Empire of Japan invades Hong Kong, the Leung family is dragged into a spiral of violence, repression, and starvation. To survive, they entomb themselves and their friends in the Leung mansion. But this is only a temporary reprieve, and the Leungs are forced to send their children away.

The youngest boy, Chung-Man, escapes with some of his siblings, and together they travel deep into the countryside to avoid the Japanese invaders. Thrown into a new world, Chung-Man must survive the horrors of war that await him. Based loosely on the diaries and stories of the author’s father, this mesmerizing story captures a child’s view of war with unsettling and unerring grace.

Rachel Manley, The Black Peacock

Friends since attending university in Jamaica, Lethe and Daniel have long realized they would never be good for each other. But Lethe is Daniel’s muse, and theirs is a connection that proves unbreakable as they spend the next thirty years criss-crossing the Caribbean and travelling the world in search of work, love, and home. Now, Daniel has become an internationally renowned poet, and Lethe aspires to be a writer in her own right. His invitation to join him at an isolated retreat, Peacock Island, gives them both a chance to reflect on the life they’ve shared.

The debut novel by Governor General’s Literary Award−winning author Rachel Manley, The Black Peacock is the story of two unforgettable characters, adrift on the ever-changing tides of the Caribbean, who are united by something less than passion but more than love.

Alison Watt, Dazzle Patterns

Beginning the day of the devastating Halifax Explosion of 1917, Dazzle Patterns is a remarkable story about resilience, the power of art, and the casualties of war.

Clare Holmes, a flaw-checker at the local glassworks, is saving up for passage to England, to work for the Red Cross and be near her fiancé, Leo, who is fighting in France. But one normal Thursday morning, a deadly explosion in the Halifax harbour shatters the city—and Clare is caught up in the blast.

As Clare struggles to recover from her injuries, she stumbles upon the School of Art, where she finds solace in drawing and a mentor who encourages her burgeoning artistic ambitions. But how can one be an artist when the world has gone mad? Meanwhile the city, weary from the seemingly endless war and torn apart by the explosion, is wracked with fear and mistrust of foreigners. Clare’s new friend Fred, a glassmaker from Germany, is pulled into a web of suspicion, causing Clare to question everything she thought she knew.