“What you could change and alter could never be finished or complete or dead. This is what I had been told back then, and what I had tried very hard to believe in since.” Beside a lake in the northern Ontario wilderness, fifteen-year-old Zachary Tayler lives a lonely life with his father, his only neighbours a leech trapper, an eccentric millionaire and an expert in snow. All Zack has for company is the harsh and moody landscape, which holds both beauty and terror in its depths and whispers with the promise of dark, secret spaces and undiscovered worlds. Summer and life change with the arrival of the mysterious Eva Spiller, who is determined to find the spot where her parents disappeared in a floatplane after flying off from the lake. While trying to navigate between summer and winter, the living and the dead, the past and the present, Zack and Eva grow closer. The people of Sitting Down Lake will have to rely on each other to come to terms with the past and realize that death is never final: something always remains. In his fifth novel, award-winning author Tristan Hughes has created a vivid and poetic coming-of-age story about loss, absence and redemption. Review Quotes and Endorsements "Superbly accomplished ... Hughes' prose is startling and luminous." ―Financial Times “Eye Lake is a sturdy and ... compelling novel, ripe with luminous prose and well-sustained metaphor, a fine investigation of isolation, work, family, the Canadian pioneer spirit and the doomed communities that linger in opportunity's wake." ―National Post “Hughes has done an exquisite job plotting Eye Lake, but this is only a small part of the novel's pleasures ... [A] deeply satisfying read.” ― Quill and Quire “Rarely has there been a more endearing storyteller ... [Hughes's] story of a small town growing and declining on the whims of a few outsize personalities also is the story of families, boom to bust.” ― Minneapolis Star Tribune “Folded within the seemingly simple narratives of Hughes' novel, is a lovely rumination on what it means for the world to end, however small that world may be.” ―This Magazine

Hummingbird

Literature & Fiction

Hughes, Tristan

Genre Fiction

Locarno Press

The Orwell Tapes

The author of Animal Farm and 1984 was a brilliant, eccentric, complicated man. Born into a comfortable English family and educated at Eton, he was, at various times, a member of the colonial police force in Burma, a tramp, a dishwasher, a critic and journalist, a fighter in the Spanish Civil War, a teacher and a shopkeeper.  In the summer of 1983, radio producer Stephen Wadhams spent eight weeks crisscrossing Britain and Spain interviewing more than seventy people who had known Orwell for a five-hour CBC radio documentary broadcast on the first day of 1984. The result was a unique resource: more than fifty hours of interviews with a huge range of people, all of whom are now dead.  In this fascinating memoir, their recollections of Orwell are woven with biographical detail to produce a very human portrait of one of the greatest writers of our time. The list of contributors includes well-known names like Stephen Spender, Malcolm Muggeridge and Lord Astor, but also the unknown men and women who inspired much of Orwell?s writing: the men who fought beside him in Spain; classmates at Eton; his first girlfriends and confidantes; childhood friends and family members, including his adopted son Richard.  In the weeks after Donald Trump?s inauguration, 1984 with its critiques of propaganda and doublespeak hit number one on the Amazon bestseller lists. The Orwell Tapes brings its author to vivid life.

Biographies & Memoirs

Wadhams, Stephen

Arts & Literature

“This Haida manga intriguingly blends graphic storytelling with a fine art sensibility… Yahgulanaas communicates via an arresting series of images evoking the traditional visual arts of the Haida people.” ―Publisher’s Weekly The brilliant follow-up to RED: A Haida Manga ― another stunningly inventive retelling of an ancient Haida tale. The latest offering from acclaimed graphic artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, War of the Blink is a stunning full-colour graphic novel about war and peace. It is the story of a fisherman who suspects a party of raiders is descending upon his island home. When his warnings are not heeded, the man sets out to guard the village on his own, only to find himself caught up in a high-stakes game of kidnap and bluff. All this leads to a final showdown, in which one of the sides must blink first―and the villagers find a surprising way to save face and their home, and avoid bloodshed. Combining traditional Northwest coast and Japanese comic art in Yahgulanaas’ own, dizzingly original mish-mash, War of the Blink is a timeless fable about the bravery it takes to choose peace over war. An earlier version of the artwork was displayed at the Vancouver Art Gallery a part of the groundbreaking exhibition “Raven Travelling.” Review Quotes and Endorsements “Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has invented a new form of graphic storytelling seen in full colour in his beautiful new book …The intricate watercolour changes the whole experience of the book, from linear and fixed to all over and fluid. ― Calgary Herald “Yahgulanaas blends … two distinct styles together into something wholly original.” ― National Post “Fusing the bold primary colours and geometric forms characteristic of classical Haida visual art with the emotionally expressive cartooning style of Japanese manga ... the traditional Haida story, freighted with all the sombre inevitability of Sophocles, is told in 108 pages of spectacularly beautiful, hand-painted images.” ―Vancouver Review “Red delights me beyond measure. Author and artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has created a new art form ― Haida manga ― that honours his heritage as well as the Japanese friends of his ancestors.” ― FastForward Weekly

War of the Blink (A Haida Manga)

Comics & Graphic Novels

Yahgulanaas, Michael Nicoll

Manga

The author of Animal Farm and 1984 was a brilliant, eccentric, complicated man. Born into a comfortable English family and educated at Eton, he was, at various times, a member of the colonial police force in Burma, a tramp, a dishwasher, a critic and journalist, a fighter in the Spanish Civil War, a teacher and a shopkeeper. In the summer of 1983, radio producer Stephen Wadhams spent eight weeks crisscrossing Britain and Spain interviewing more than seventy people who had known Orwell for a five-hour CBC radio documentary broadcast on the first day of 1984. The result was a unique resource: more than fifty hours of interviews with a huge range of people, all of whom are now dead. In this fascinating memoir, their recollections of Orwell are woven with biographical detail to produce a very human portrait of one of the greatest writers of our time. The list of contributors includes well-known names like Stephen Spender, Malcolm Muggeridge and Lord Astor, but also the unknown men and women who inspired much of Orwell’s writing: the men who fought beside him in Spain; classmates at Eton; his first girlfriends and confidantes; childhood friends and family members, including his adopted son Richard. In the weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, 1984 with its critiques of propaganda and doublespeak hit number one on the Amazon bestseller lists. The Orwell Tapes brings its author to vivid life.

“This is Haida land, you all know that, and we’re here to uphold the decision of the Haida Nation. This is Haida land and there will be no further logging in this area.” Kilsli Kaji Sting, Miles Richardson Jr., on the line at Athlii Gwaii, 1985In 1985, the Haida Nation refused to accept the relentless industrial logging practices that were ravaging Gwaii Haanas, the southern part of the Haida Gwaii archipelago. Designating the area a Haida Heritage Site, they drew a line that stands to this day. Guided by Haida law and trusting in their culture, the Nation upheld their responsibility to Haida Gwaii with unwavering clarity. Canada and the province of British Columbia pushed back and seventy-two people were arrested, including many Elders. But the Haida held firm in their stand, and with the support of friends from around the world, logging was stopped. Negotiations between the Haida Nation and Canada ensued, resulting in the ground-breaking Gwaii Haanas Agreement in which both Nations agree to disagree on Title to the region, and instead focus on its protection for the benefit of all future generations. Filled with rich political and personal stories from upwards of 40 authors, along with intimate images from this critical moment in history, Athlii Gwaii pays homage to Haida Gwaii and its people, upholds Indigenous Rights and Title, bears witness to how non-violence works and reminds us of ... the possible.About the AuthorsContributors include Miles Richardson Jr.; Guujaaw,; Diane Brown; Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson; David Suzuki and many more. Edited by Jisgang, Nika Collison.

Athlii Gwaii: Upholding Haida Law on Lyell Island

History

Americas

“This Haida manga intriguingly blends graphic storytelling with a fine art sensibility… Yahgulanaas communicates via an arresting series of images evoking the traditional visual arts of the Haida people.” ―Publisher’s Weekly
The brilliant follow-up to War of Blink and RED: A Haida Manga ― another stunningly inventive retelling of an ancient Haida tale.

A Tale of Two Shamans: A Haida Manga

The Book Toute la France is Talking About, Now Available in English “Literature doesn’t stop bullets. On the other hand, it can stop a finger from ending up on a trigger. Perhaps. It’s a bet worth making.” Erwan Larher was enjoying a rock concert in Paris’ Bataclan Theater on November 13, 2015, when the firing started. In this genre-bending, deeply moving and unexpected memoir, Larher reflects on what the gruesome terror attack meant to him and to others. The Book I Didn’t Want to Write transcends bearing witness. Larher’s voice is intertwined with others―his partner, his father, the two friends who were going to come but didn’t―to create a deeply moving collective chronicle of the most violent night in French history since World War II. He recounts not only how such an act affected him and his loved ones, but the thousands who lived through that night, the millions who followed the event through media, and even the attackers themselves. ‘You were in the wrong place at the wrong time; you’re a miracle, not a victim,’ he writes. Larher is anything but self-pitying. The book is all the more remarkable in its stoic, bold approach: perhaps to be expected from one of France’s most beloved rock-n-roll novelist with a suitably gritty look at the world and at words. There is no tearful history, unhealthy voyeurism or grudge-settling. Instead, Larher explains how he must, ‘write around because you are a novelist and not a chronicler, because you can only shape a text by appeasing literature.’ The Book I Didn’t Want to Write is remarkable in both its construction and content. It achieves what few titles can―and exactly what Larher set out to do―to remind us of life’s emotional and artistic depths despite tragedy. It is a masterful slap in the face and a hymn to life.

The Book I Didn’t Want to Write

Larher, Erwan

True Crime

A search and rescue volunteer looks for a missing snowboarder on Christmas Eve. Two brothers retreat to the woods to shoot a film in memory of their dead friend. A reclusive forestry worker picks up a hitchhiker on his way down Mount Seymour. A young man finds a temporary haven on the ice barge where he works. In this collection of award-winning stories, Tyler Keevil uses the rugged landscape of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet―where the city meets the mountains and civilization meets the wild―as a backdrop for characters struggling against the elements, each other and themselves. Written in a lean, muscular style, these are stories awash in blood and brine, and steeped in images of freedom and confinement.

Sealskin

Keevil, Tyler

Short Stories & Anthologies

Cradled on the Waves: A Mystery: From Sea to Sea Volume 2: Prince Edward Island, 1871

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Haldane, Seán

Mystery

The Devil’s Making: A Mystery: From Sea to Sea Volume 1: Vancouver Island, 1869

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Locarno Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Locarno Press

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Locarno Press publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Hummingbird

The Orwell Tapes

War of the Blink (A Haida Manga)

The Orwell Tapes

Athlii Gwaii: Upholding Haida Law on Lyell Island

A Tale of Two Shamans: A Haida Manga

The Book I Didn’t Want to Write

Sealskin

Cradled on the Waves: A Mystery: From Sea to Sea Volume 2: Prince Edward Island, 1871

The Devil’s Making: A Mystery: From Sea to Sea Volume 1: Vancouver Island, 1869