National Network for Equitable Library Service

Danny thinks he must be the only seventeen-year-old guy in Cape Breton – in Nova Scotia, maybe – who doesn't have his life figured out. His buddy Kierce has a rule for every occasion, and his best friend Jay has bad grades, no plans and no worries. Danny's dad nags him about his post-high-school plans, his friends bug him about girls and a run-in with the cops means he has to get a summer job. Worst of all, he's keeping a secret that could ruin everything.

Sam and Nate tells the story of a developing friendship between two boys. Through letters, notes, school projects, a pregnant teacher and a substitute who has never taught children before, Sam and Nate support each other as best they can, but get into some funny scrapes while they're at it.

Ray Hockaday plays center for the Medicine Hat Tigers. He’s spent his hockey career hiding something from the world. When his new Russian roommate shows up, Ray is assigned to help Vlad get used to life in Canada. What Ray doesn’t know is that Vlad is also hiding something. And that secret could get both of them killed.

When a young woman goes missing on a nature trail, small-town journalist Claire Abbott is first on the scene, as usual. The clues to the woman’s whereabouts are misleading, but Claire has a sixth sense, what the fire chief calls a “radar for crime.” Trusting her intuition, Claire insists that the search and rescue team look elsewhere for clues to the woman’s disappearance. When they fail to follow up on her lead, she pursues it on her own, embarking on a snowy chase up a mountainside that puts herself and others in danger. She’s more than just a journalist chasing a story.

Jesse's project about his immigrant ancestors is due tomorrow and he hasn't started. In a last-ditch effort to find some information about his great-great grandfather, Yossi, Jesse rummages through the mess in the attic until he finds a little battered travel case, full of pictures, and something else -- a Star of David. At first it looks plain and unimportant, but as he holds it in his hand, the star begins to glow. Jesse is in for the surprise, and adventure, of his life as he finds himself becoming the star's first owner, his own great-great grandfather.

Winner, 2011 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction Longlisted for the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2016 Swiftly paced, poignantly moving, and beautifully imagined, Niko is the powerful epic story of what it takes to survive after war, of what to hold dear and what to leave behind in a world that won’t let you have it all. Six-year-old Niko Karam has never known a life outside civil war. He rarely leaves his parents’ small apartment, and from its small balcony he listens to the world outside tumble down one building at a time.

When heroin-addicted call girl Elizabeth Lucy dies in a fall from a swanky penthouse terrace, homicide detective Henderson is assigned to the case. Was it murder? Suicide? Through his investigation, Henderson uncovers a frightening underworld that is far more dark and dangerous than those of prostitution and the drug trade. But more than anything, this is Elizabeth’s story. Told through flashbacks and those who knew her, revelations unfold, revealing a life that ends with a struggle unlike any other. A masterful debut, The Pyx has earned considerable praise in Canada and abroad.

A novel about the gig economy. Twenty-nine-year-old Daniel is an under-employed internet artist who's struggling as much with money and inspiration as he is in his relationship with Grace. Against a backdrop of a digital economy that rewards online platforms instead of content creators, with climate-change anxiety hanging in the air, the resolutely contemporary Morissette immerses readers into a year of modern love, as Daniel and Grace navigate their aspirations, insecurities and ambitions amidst a culture obsessed with selfies and identity.

Finally, after 58 years The Body on Mount Royal is back in print, starring hard-drinking private dick, Russell Teed. From the back cover of the 1953 edition: Take a brutally beaten body, a lonely spot on Montreal's famous mountain, and a buxum brunette whose embrace brings treachery. Add a large dose of vicious gang warfare and a slice of underworld life. Mix these ingredients well and you have a large helping of spicy, fast-paced adventure.

Taking its title from a story in the collection, this anthology brings together the best prose writing in Quebec—all short pieces—from the winners and finalists of the last three years of the Quebec Writing Competition. Montreal’s CBC Radio and the Quebec Writers’ Federation created the competition in 1999 which resulted in four previous anthologies: Telling Stories, Short Stuff, In Other Words, and Minority Reports. The winning stories are broadcast on CBC Radio and published in Maisonneuve magazine.