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Some days, it doesn’t pay to be a lapsed pretend Buddhist . . . particularly when you’re charged with a lengthy list of war crimes. Vida Zankovic has done many things to stay alive. A wily young man caught in the insanity of the Balkan wars, Vida has dealt drugs, been forced to join the army, and then deserted when he tried to save a young boy trapped beneath a mountain of corpses. Being accused of genocide, however, forces Vida into a whole new level of surrealism.

Winner, Quiddity Award for Best Book TrailerShortlisted, Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and QWF First Book PrizeYou're the kind of guy who falls in love after one date. Marginalized and alienated, perennial fuck-up Lee Goodstone is a resounding zero: a low-rent hash-dealer with delusions of inadequacy. He's content to while away the hours of his life drinking, smoking, hanging out, playing the occasional game of hockey, and generally ignoring the world outside his tiny neighbourhood. But Lee's near-idyllic existence is about to grind into second gear.

Greetings from the off-kilter world of Chris Gudgeon. In his first-ever book of fiction, the bestselling author of The Naked Truth: The Untold History of Sex in Canada offers postcard glimpses into the quirky private lives of unusually twisted characters. A prim English bride honeymooning near the so-called Vodka Sea learns the hard way why it’s better not to drink the water in foreign parts. A chess-playing doctor loses his wife to a charismatic psychologist during a sensuous group sex session masquerading as therapy.

An invasion? For teenagers Dryfly Ramsey and Shadrack Nash, poor and ignorant in the world’s terms but rich in the lore of the magical Miramichi, the annual influx of American anglers, with their money, fishing gear, and thirst for salmon seems like one, and it sets the stage for action. A cast of quirky, unforgettable characters — Nutbeam, a large-nosed, floppy-eared hermit; Shirley, Brennan Siding’s toothless postmistress and Ramsey family matriarch; and Buck, who appears once a year to sire another child — conspire to capture the imagination in Herb Curtis’s now classic novel.

In this new novel by ReLit award–winning, Leacock-nominated writer Andrew Kaufman, Charlie eschews the usual avenues of mid-life crisis—sportscars, mistresses—and instead seeks meaning in the least likely of places: small claims court. There, he struggles to understand what’s gone wrong in his marriage, his career as a writer, and his relationship with his two young children.

Sequel to Pop Goes the Weasel Patrick “Weasel” Weasley is worried he’s not spending enough time with his new boyfriend Tony, now that they are living and working in different towns. He decides the best way to cement the relationship is to buy Tony a ring for Christmas. Unfortunately, Weasel's evil stepfather--a rat bastard if ever there was one--has cut him off without a cent, and he is left with no other choice. He must (gasp!) get a job!

<p><i>Atomic Storybook</i> is a novel about a young painter named Owen who is regularly abducted by beings he calls “the space pricks.” These otherworldly visitors perform experiments on him, befuddle him with an absurd riddle about the moon, and show him scenes from his previous lives — one as a 12th century English monk; in another he shares the ward with Albert Einstein’s son, Eduard, in the Burghölzli mental hospital.</p> <p>Through all of this, and his lengthy existential conversations with physics professor, Chesley Keeping, Owen comes to doubt the nature

<p><i>Valery the Great</i> is a crackling, electric collection of dark humour that follows the bizarre and beautiful lives of its protagonists.

<p>Longlisted for the ReLit Award</p> <p>Best Fiction 2006, <i>Ottawa Xpress</i></p> <p><i>Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit</i> is a singularly Canadian novel featuring crime, culture, and sports. Written in the vein of John Kennedy Toole (<i>Confederacy of Dunces</i>) and JP Donleavy, <i>Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit</i> is set in Vancouver during an early 80s Grey Cup weekend. Tourists and sports aficionados have descended on the city in record droves.

<p><b>Shortlisted for the City of Hamilton book award</b></p> <p>At times comic, tender, dark, and arrestingly bizarre, Gary Barwin’s latest fiction collection marvels at the strangeness, charm, and beauty that is contemporary life in the quantum world.</p> <p>Ranging from short story to postcard fiction, Barwin’s stories are luminous, hilarious, and surprising.