National Network for Equitable Library Service

Ultimatum 2 is an action-packed, fast-moving saga. The American president is fed up with the hundreds of millions of dollars given to Russia to clean up high-level nuclear waste. His solution is to give the Russians an ultimatum: do this my way, or else! It is delivered in person by the secretary of state during a secret rendezvous in Norway.A second ultimatum follows from the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom to the government of Canada, after they decide that an international nuclear waste disposal site should be created in Canada.

Canadians took politics seriously in the years following Confederation and Gordon Aiken’s novel about pioneer Muskoka and the fledgling nation’s capital shows why. Unique events in the Dominion’s second election, in 1872, inspired Aiken to write about Muskoka’s returning officer, Richard Bell, who refused to declare Liberal candidate A.P. Cockburn elected, even though he got the most votes.

Malcolm Bidwell is young, smart, and ambitious—and he’s just been hired by mistake by newly elected Premier Steven Davis as his “go-to guy” for every political mess that needs cleaning up. And there are plenty of messes—from a cabinet minister caught in a vice sting to the premier’s animal cruelty charge for killing a crow. Negotiating his way through the treacherous and wickedly funny corridors of power, Malcolm is forced to make difficult choices: between what’s right and what’s expedient, and between his old friends and his new career.

Political passions and sexual identity are delicately intertwined in this bittersweet tale of stolen youth. Set in Salvador Allende's Chile, Léo follows the path of three friends who journey from innocence to understanding as they learn what it means to truly ‘disappear'; Rodrigo, the idealistic aspiring politician; Léo, the passionate young poet; and Isolda, a young woman adrift in her own life.

Shortly after the Conservatives win a majority government in the 2011 federal election, the prime minister discovers a secret weapon in his caucus—Jisbella Lyth, a single mother with a limited understanding of her role as an MP. Using her ignorance to his advantage, the PM hatches a plan to have Jisbella front and centre in a campaign of misdirection and distraction. Humorous and clever, Proud explores the corrosive nature of the politics of division.

Spanning two decades, Smallwood’s story is anchored and propelled by one of Johnston’s most memorable creations: the fictitious Sheilagh Fielding, a caustic newspaper columnist whose own battles with the past and alcohol addiction find full vent and expression in her tireless dogging of Smallwood’s climb to power. At its heart, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is the story of a man whose career is buoyed and sometimes sunk by his unresolved feelings for a woman he never allowed himself to love.

It’s December 1979 and Clark’s minority Progressive Conservative government is under threat of dissolution before it has a chance to accomplish anything — even pass a budget. But Clark is young and idealistic, resolute on making his mark in office. When he steals a moment at his desk to make a crucial decision, his colleagues, including Brian Mulroney and Pierre Trudeau, take the opportunity to steer him in different directions.

Set in Romania at the height of Ceausescu's reign of terror, The Land of Green Plums tells the story of a group of young people who leave the impoverished provinces for the city in search of better prospects and camaraderie.

In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Daria, an Iraqi refugee, has lost everything she holds dear--and now seeks revenge on those responsible. Recruited for a dangerous mission, she boards a plane to New York with instructions to make contact with--and infect--as many as possible. Meanwhile, American scientist Dr. Sam Watterman is asked by the government to help locate a new threat to homeland security.