Cut loose at the end of a long and violent hockey career prolonged by steroids and numbed by liquor, ex-enforcer Billy Purdy discovers that the soon-to-be-published novel of a celebrated politician's son is in fact Billy's father's own, taken word for word from the original published, and promptly forgotten, some forty years before. Allowing the ruse to continue, and in an effort to distance himself from his violent past, Purdy embarks upon an exotic, oftentimes absurd adventure in an attempt to reinvent himself in what he envisions to be a more cerebral and civilized image, in a world he has never fully been a part of, or developed the necessary tools to properly inhabit. Yearning for connection of any kind, yet seemingly unable to sustain it for any length of time, Billy Purdy comes to symbolize the alienation, frustration, and ultimate futility behind this quintessential Canadian dream.

An Inverted Sort of Prayer

Literature & Fiction

Needham, Chris F.

Literary

Now or Never Pub Co

Leaving Lovestiff Annie

In 1980, while working in a warehouse, Lane Courtney takes stock in the family myth that he is a direct descendant of Reginald Fitz Urse, one of the knights who martyred Saint Becket in 1170. His laconic, autobiographical reflections are interwoven with numerous misadventures as he hangs out at the Hotel Isabella and the Warwicks infamous strip lounge, associating with angry prostitutes, errant bikers and speed freaks.
Whether he is getting high on crystal meth, getting sick on the subway tracks, causing a scene in the lobby of a mental hospital, or being chased down by a woman with a broken bottle, Courtney is going nowhere. A romantic relationship with a volatile stripper that becomes increasingly complicated once she becomes pregnant only adds to the chaos of his life.
Courtney later heads west where both his lack of direction and the fame that rewards those who kill the famous come into clear focus with the murder of John Lennon. Cultivating the insane idea of shooting President Reagan to uphold the family name, he makes ready to head for Washington D.C., but before he arrives this last-ditch effort at success is derailed by historical events he could not have foreseen.

Dragging the River

Clark, Trevor

Often controversial, sometimes sexual, and not without black humour, Love on the Killing Floor opens in Toronto in 1992 with Gilchrist, a down-and-out portrait photographer, being searched on a bus in the middle of the night by police he suspects are looking for a local rapist. His town is changing. Life wasnt always like this. But now, with an estranged wife whos convinced hes a bum and a new girlfriend who refuses to be tamed, Gilchrist finds himself weaving in and out of bars and parties amidst an increasingly peculiar cast of characters including a troubled dominatrix, a hostile Rastafarian, and a recently separated father suffering from his own share of demons. Building on a shared foundation of racism and paranoia of immigration, radical feminism, gay activism and multiculturalism, they soon find themselves embroiled in the citys first race riot. But when Gilchrist unexpectedly falls for a black woman with her own contentious notions about whites, he is exposed to a culture of which he was relatively ignorant, and completely misinformed, forcing him to reconsider a few hard-held beliefs. Ironically, when his old friendships start to break down, it is with her people he begins to associate, but not before a shocking reencounter with his ex shakes him awake once more.

Love on the Killing Floor

Ethan Reid is a 24-year-old alcoholic who spends his nights drifting between bars, drinking excessively to the point where he can no longer remember. In Toronto he meets a beautiful girl named Natalie, who forces him to question his solitary lifestyle. But when their relationship turns sour, Ethan retreats into the city's underground drug world, spiraling further out of control as old wounds begin to resurface. Set over a weekend in 2010,Seeing Redlays open an overeducated,underemployed generation struggling to reconcile expectations with reality. It is sardonic, poignant, and wickedly funny.

Seeing Red

Sutherland, Shawn

What does it mean to be a nobody? How does it feel to be a somebody? And why is it so hard to be ourselves? These are the questions at the heart of Nobodies, a darkly comedic collection in which a neurotic teenager experiences his first rejection; a stalker emails her favourite movie star; a young man wages war against God; and an aspiring philosopher--with the help of his imaginary mentor, Jonathan Swift--tries to save the world from itself. In sixteen genre-bending stories, Nobodies explores the paradoxes of status anxiety, the pitfalls of fame, and the dialectics of identity in the twenty-first century.

Nobodies

Chris Gilmore

Short Stories & Anthologies

Stella's Carpet

Black, Lucy E.M.

The Strait of Anian

Waterfall, Rhonda

United States

Product Description In a city where everything is recorded by data--from the coffee you drink to your most intimate secrets--Data Detective Frank Southwood, down on his luck and saddled with a gambling addiction, faces jail time if he can't pay his debts. Working for an elite body of detectives who use big data for police work, Frank gets the case that might make his career when he begins investigating a high-profile money laundering ring. Meanwhile, he meets and falls for Jenny, a political activist with ties to the criminal underworld. Desperate to pay his debts, Frank makes a dirty bribery deal with Jenny's fellow criminals, but soon his investigation leads him back to the criminals he himself works for. Forced to choose between putting Jenny in jail or else an innocent man in her place, Frank pushes the limits of morality in a world in which justice can seem preordained. Thoughtful and eerily prophetic, City of Sensors shines a light on a digital future rapidly becoming our reality. About the Author Originally from Alberta, A. M. Todd currently lives in Toronto. Her work has been published in Breath and Shadow, Kaleidoscope, Scare Street and After Dinner Conversation, and her short stories have twice won Honourable Mention in the Writers of the Future Contest. She completed a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Toronto. City of Sensors is her first novel.

City of Sensors

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Todd, A. M.

Mystery

Troll

Macnair, Logan

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