Canada is a vast country in terms of land mass, with its population spread out across millions of kilometres from coast to coast to coast, though it’s no secret that the majority of this population lives in cities and communities close to the border where it isn’t so remote, rugged, and, well, chilly. Urban metropolises like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver have long become recognized as cultural hubs in the literary landscape, producing plenty of great writing and famous names known the world over. That said, what if I told you there’s plenty more to Canada than its cities when it comes to literary talent?
Between the urban centres from the west coast to the east lie countless small, rural communities that can easily be overlooked, forgotten, or are just completely unknown unless you happened to grow up in one of them. Maybe you’ve driven through one or several of these locales on a road trip, headed somewhere else. Remote as some of these rural communities might be, they can produce talented writers and engaging narratives of their own to stand alongside the writing generated by urban literary centres, whilst exploring topics and themes that resonate with any reader, no matter where they call home.
If this sounds like something you’re curious about, dive into this list of Canadian books whose authors and/or novel settings are rural in nature and which are very deserving of wider recognition, showcasing the rich talent that exists in the overlooked, underappreciated places of the country. There are more, but this can get you started. Like the small towns and rural communities scattered across Canada, you’ll no doubt find a hidden gem or two to add to your reading list this summer.
Those are Pearls by André Narbonne
New fiction from Giller-longlisted author André Narbonne.
From the seeds of an impoverished boilermaker’s adoration for a rich doctor’s daughter grows a sweeping story of a family whose personal passions are woven into the tapestry of world history.
The first time Harry Short rides into battle—in 1895, at the beginning of the Boer War—it’s to win the heart of Margaret Roll. Nineteen years later, at the start of World War One, he enlists again, this time to escape her. With Margaret, Harry creates a family rich in character whose story spans generations and continents, traveling from Cape Town to Winnipeg to Flanders’ Fields. Harry’s family arrives to Canada in 1910 as prairie homesteaders, witnesses the Winnipeg Riot of 1919, survives the Great Flood of 1950. They marry farmers, bootleggers, and communists, are investigated by the police, perform acts of battlefield heroism, are torpedoed. From the seeds of an impoverished boilermaker’s adoration for a rich doctor’s daughter grows a sweeping story of a family whose personal passions are woven into the tapestry of world history.
The Haunting of Modesto O'Brien by Brit Griffin
A gothic tale from deep within the boreal forest…
Violence and greed have intruded into a wild and remote land. It’s 1907, and silver fever has drawn thousands of men into a fledgling mining camp in the heart of the wilderness. Modesto O’Brien, fortune-teller and detective, is there too – but he isn’t looking for riches. He’s seeking revenge.
O’Brien soon finds himself entangled with the mysterious Nail sisters, Lucy and Lily. On the run from their past and headed for trouble, Lily turns to O’Brien when Lucy goes missing. But what should have been a straightforward case of kidnapping pulls O’Brien into a world of ancient myths, magic, and male violence.
As he searches for Lucy, O’Brien fears that dark forces are emerging from the ravaged landscape. Mesmerized by a nightmarish creature stalking the wilderness, and haunted by his past, O’Brien struggles to maintain his grip on reality as he faces hard choices about loyalty, sacrifice, and revenge.
A Quilting of Scars by Lucy E.M. Black
Filled with the pleasure of recognizable yet distinctively original characters and a deftly drawn sense of time and place, A Quilting of Scars brings to life a story of forbidden love, abuse and murder.
Pulsing with repressed sexuality and guilt, Larkin Beattie reveals the many secrets he has kept hidden throughout his lonely life. The character-driven narrative is a meditation on aging and remorse, offering a rich account of the strictures and rhythms of farming in the not-so-distant past, highlighting the confines of a community where strict moral codes are imposed upon its members and fear of exposure terrifies queer youth. As Larkin reflects upon key events, his recollections include his anger at the hypocrisy of the church, and the deep grief and loneliness that have marked his path. There is a timelessness to this story which transcends the period and resonates with heart-breaking relevance.
Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery
Longlisted for the Toronto Book Awards
Fantasies are places we briefly visit; we can’t live there. The stories in Widow Fantasies deftly explore the subjugation of women through the often subversive act of fantasizing. From a variety of perspectives, through a symphony of voices, Widow Fantasies immerses the reader in the domestic rural gothic, offering up unforgettable stories from the shadowed lives of girls and women.
Oil People by David Huebert
Part generational saga, part eco-gothic fable, Oil People is a luminous debut novel about history and family, land and power, and oil as an object of toxic wonder.
1987: Thirteen-year-old Jade Armbruster lives with her parents and older sister on the family’s vintage oil farm—a decrepit property built by her ancestor. As her parents fight about whether to sell the land and their failing business, Jade struggles to avoid her best-friend-turned-nemesis and vies for the attention of the enigmatic farmer boy. Meanwhile, the oil swirling beneath her family’s home provokes erratic behaviours and offers murky revelations about her family’s history on this land.
1862: Clyde Armbruster catches his big break, striking Lambton County’s first gusher. The discovery brings wealth and opportunity to him and his wife Lise, but his daily proximity to oil leaves him infertile and may be the cause of his alarming, otherworldly visions. At the same time, Clyde and Lise develop an alliance with their eccentric and wealthy neighbours, a relationship that promises even more success until a fateful moment intertwines the two families, locking them into a bitter rivalry that lasts generations.
As the two narratives coalesce, family secrets and deceits are slowly unveiled, and the slick spectre of oil seeps off the page, revealing a landscape smeared and stained, yet persistently alive. Intense and visceral, agile and lyrical, Oil People is a molten mirror for the petroleum age, and signals the arrival of a profound and vital voice.
In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart
From one of the greatest writers of our time comes a profound and moving novel of an unforgettable life.
In the early morning dark, Emer McConnell rises for a day of teaching music in the schools of rural Saskatchewan. While she travels the snowy roads in the gathering light, she begins another journey, one of recollection and introspection, and one that, through the course of Jane Urquhart’s brilliant new novel, will leave the reader forever changed.
Moving as effortlessly through time as the drift of memory itself, In Winter I Get Up at Night brings Emer and her singular story to life. At the age of 11, she is terribly injured in an enormous prairie storm—the “great wind” that shifts her trajectory forever. As she recovers, separated from her family in a children’s ward, Emer gets to know her fellow patients, a memorable group including a child performer who stars in a travelling theatre company, the daughter of a Dukhobor community, and the son of a leftist Jewish farm collective. The children are tended to by three nursing sisters and two doctors, whom the ever-imaginative Emer comes to call Doctor Angel and Doctor Carpenter.
Emer’s tale grows outwards from that ward, reaching through time and space in a dreamlike fashion, recounting the stories of her mother’s entanglement with a powerful yet mysterious teacher; her brother’s dawning spirituality, which eventually leads him to the priesthood; the remarkable lives of the nuns who care for her; and the passionate yet distant love affair of Emer and an enigmatic man she calls Harp—a brilliant scientist whose great discovery has forever altered millions of lives around the world.
In luminous prose, and with exhilarating nuance and depth, Jane Urquhart charts an unforgettable life, while also exploring some of the grandest themes of the twentieth century—colonial expansion, scientific progress, and the sinister forces that seek to divide societies along racial and cultural lines. In Winter I Get Up at Night is a major work of imagination and self-exploration from one of the greatest writers of our time.
The Stones of Burren Bay by Emily De Angelis
In a tragic car accident, 15-year-old Norie loses her father while her distant mother is injured. Her prized possession, an antique artist’s box that traveled from Ireland with her great-great-grandmother, is destroyed along with her deep connection to her art.
As Norie grapples with her self-identity, obscured by grief and anger, she and her physically and emotionally fragile mother are forced to relocate. With no other relatives to rely on, they call on the kindness of her mother’s oldest friend Dahlia and her daughter Wil, who run the Jolly Pot Tearoom and Burren Bay Lighthouse Museum on Manitoulin Island. Dahlia introduces Norie to ancient Irish Celtic spiritualism and opens the thin veil between the past and present where Norie encounters the echo of a century’s old spirit, Oonagh. Through Oonagh’s own story Norie comes to terms with her father’s betrayal and death and rediscovers her passion for art. As her mother’s emotional wounds reach a crisis, Norie realizes they must face their guilt and grief together in order to heal and become reunited as mother and daughter.
Joe Pete by Ian McCulloch
Sandy Mecowatch, a descendant of Missinabi Cree people, falls through the ice leaving behind his wife Louise and eleven year old daughter Alison “Joe Pete”. Joe Pete’s grief propels her to risk searching for her father in the same winter conditions that took him. Along with her obedient and protective cousin Simon, they embark on a journey where they will find more than they anticipated buried beneath the snow. Their journey will unlock the ancestors and spirits embedded in the present who call back to a past marked by war and kinship, by conflict and wisdom that continue to contour their trajectory towards the future.
