National Network for Equitable Library Service

Written over a period of three years and across a range of styles and lengths, Walking with Albert is Keith Weaver's first short story compilation. These stories range from micro-narratives of a few pages in length to what could be called miniature novellas. Weaver's stories cover a vast territorial expanse, taking the reader from outer space to the minutia of Earth's countryside, then into the human heart. One story concerns a young man's unrealised expectation of winning a Fields Medal, while others explore the joys and challenges of rural life, past and present.

What might happen when one tries to move a railway station? Do you know where Jericho is? Can someone could become rich based on knowledge of an obsolete size of paper? Ever had nightmares about a pitcher plant? In Fool's Cap and Other Stories, readers will travel to Italy, France, Germany, England, Nova Scotia, and other parts of Canada. There's a story about road hockey, two old friends discovering things over a cup of coffee, an event that leads a shadowy figure to change his life, an odd pair of vigilantes, and even a man with a coin in his mouth.

Even That Wildest Hope bursts with vibrant, otherworldly characters-wax girls and gods-among-men, artists on opposite sides of a war, aimless plutocrats and anarchist urchins-who are sometimes wondrous, often grotesque, and always driven by passions and yearnings common to us all. Each story is an untamed territory unto itself: where characters are both victims and predators, the settings are antique and futuristic, and where our intimacies-with friends, lovers, enemies, and even our food-reveal a deeply human desire for beauty and abjection.

Acclaimed poet Nilofar Shidmehr's debut story collection is an unflinching look at the lives of women in post-revolutionary Iran and the contemporary diaspora in Canada. The stories begin in 1978, the year before the Iranian Revolution. In a neighbourhood in Tehran, a group of affluent girls play a Cinderella game with unexpected consequences. In the mid 1980s, women help their husbands and brothers survive war and political upheaval. In the early 1990s in Vancouver, Canada, a single-mother refugee is harassed by the men she meets on a telephone dating platform.

Angst, seduction, escape and extinction control these many tales-a whisper in the ear convinces a lady to take the plunge, another to take up surfing, and a young man to jump in front of a moving train-and there is joy in settling a score with despised neighbours and a conspiracy under the California sun.

A woman becomes obsessed with a story about her family from 1890-when a naked, mute girl stumbled onto their property-and whether or not it really happened. A self-help guru and his chief strategist take their most affluent and unstable clients on a harrowing nature hike that destroys their company. A young convict in a prison creative writing class chronicles the rise and fall of his cellblock's resident peacemaker. A rural neighbourhood is mesmerized by the coming of a strange and powerful new homeowner who is in the middle of reinventing herself.

Escaping government-sanctioned flooding, obsessing over camera-equipped drones, violently mourning a lost brother, discovering a new passion in fencing, watching a wildfire consume a whole town: the stories in Lands and Forests survey the emotional landscapes of women and men whose lives, though rooted deeply in the land and their small communities, are still rocked by great cultural change. These are raw, honest character studies reminiscent of the work of Alexander MacLeod and Lisa Moore, but with a style and energy all their own.

Imagine walking home from school one day and seeing a brain on the side of the road, a brain that, it turns out, is looking for a new home. Or instead of paying attention to the teacher, you shoot a paper airplane across the room and accidentally rip a hole in the fabric of the universe. And what would you do if you discovered that your class reading group was actually recruiting kids with telekinetic powers? Tales from Beyond the Brain is a collection of thirteen spooky stories that are as outrageous as they are terrifying.

Canada's answer to Chuck Palahniuk. A bear runs amok in a luxury hotel. A daily swim at the local pool becomes a question of life or death. The champion of a border wall faces an unexpected adversary.The twelve stories in Different Beasts ask what it means to be both human and monster. Shape-shifting waifs, haunted stuffies, scavenging drones, insectoid demon-gods, and mutant angels all come to life in this wildly imagined debut.

Maggie's most notorious cases and exclusive content from the author have been bundled into one audiobook! This collection features Vendetta, The Witness, and The Defector.