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After generations of prosperity in the mining town of Brighton, Newfoundland, Jack and Angela McCarthy find themselves jobless. In order to keep his family together, Jack accepts a job in a gold mine in the wilds of northern Alberta. 2015 DEWEY DIVA PICK Arriving in Foxville, the McCarthys find themselves resented, bullied, and cast as outsiders. When Jack’s best friend, Peter, is swindled out of his savings and resorts to stealing from the mine, his attempts at reversing their fortunes thrust both families into even deeper torment.

Just as blue eyes or a birthmark may be passed down through the generations, so too are other, far less welcome traits, not all of them physical, but emotional. More in Anger is the poignant story of three generations of women and the emotional legacy that follows each of them throughout the years. In 1915, Opal King marries a man whose past steeped him in anger. Opal’s thwarted dreams, and her husband’s temper, reverberate and influence the life of their elder daughter Pearl.

As Cynthia ruminates on her changing circumstances, life forces her to take a look at those she calls family. A former literary notable, Cynthia Wilkes is looking down the barrel of an empty nest, an empty desk, and an endless supply of empty pages when an unlikely protégé comes calling, setting in motion a chain of events that will force Cynthia, and those closest to her, to redefine the idea of family and of self.

First published in 1935, Young Renny takes us even further back in the Whiteoak family saga to 1906. Renny, the young master of Jalna, is just eighteen. His twenty-year-old sister Meg is engaged to marry the young man next door, Maurice Vaughan Uncle Nick and Uncle Ernest, now in their fifties, have squandered their inheritances abroad on high living and reside again at Jalna. But the plot thickens further, when two outsiders join the mix: A gypsy woman, who seduces Renny, and a distant cousin from Ireland, who befriends Gran, moves into Jalna, and spies on the family.

First published in 1958, Centenary at Jalna brings us to 1953 when the Whiteoaks gather to mark the 100th anniversary of their estate. It has now been a century since Captain Philip and Adeline Whiteoak arrived in Canada and built their legacy. While this should be a time of festivity for the clan, tension and discontent surround the forthcoming marriage of a new generations Adeline and Philip, grandchildren of the originals. To make matters worse, young Dennis risks tragedy and Wakefield finds himself in a doomed relationship.

Short-listed for the 2002 Governor General’s Award for Translation (French to English) Confident, hardworking, and practical, architect Anne Martin is living the good life in Montreal. Yet one day, high up in her apartment overlooking the city and the river, at the heart of her perfectly controlled universe, Anne witnesses a scene that causes a crack to appear in her life, a crack that slowly widens and eventually threatens her very existence. At this time of lost certainty, Anne’s work takes her to Tunis.

First published in 1933, The Master of Jalna is Renny Whiteoak, who owns the old house and property. After the death of Grandmother Adeline, Renny attempts to carry on the family tradition. He and his wife Alayne have a daughter named Adeline, who has inherited her namesake’s red hair, strong will, and fierce temper. While Alayne is preoccupied trying to tame this wild, red-headed child, Renny has a love affair with Claire, the widow of his best friend. The whole Whiteoak family is back at Jalna, and Renny looks after everyone, including Claire and her daughter.

When Anna and Sadie discover the diaries of their mother, Rebecca, in the days following her death, they learn that her life was far more complex than either of them knew: a garment worker in early-1900s New York; the reluctant wife in an arranged marriage to an ailing and abusive husband; the improbable friend of a pregnant prostitute.But the diaries reveal more than just surprising details about Rebecca’s life: they also point to a family secret - and questions about Sadie’s true parentage.The Featherbed is a gripping family saga that moves between the tenements of New York’s Lower East S

First published in 1944, The Building of Jalna is one of sixteen books in the Jalna series written by Canada’s Mazo de la Roche. In The Building of Jalna, Adeline, an impulsive bride with an Irish temper, and her husband, Captain Whiteoak, select Lake Ontario as the site of their new home. De la Roche chronicles their trials and tribulations during the building of the house, the swimming and skating parties, and the jealousies and humourous events that arise. This is book 1 of 16 in The Whiteoak Chronicles. It is followed by Morning at Jalna.

Short-listed for the 2001 Rogers Writers’ Trust of Canada Fiction Prize and the Amazon.com/Books in Canada First Novel Prize Lilith Boot’s life changes forever the night she drowns the flowers in her parents’ garden. Frightened by their daughter’s odd behaviour, and her recent pronouncements of psychic visions, the Boots send Lilith to a Vancouver mental hospital. It is there that she becomes pregnant, giving birth after her discharge. Years later, Lilith uses her visions to help Toronto police find missing children.