National Network for Equitable Library Service

From critically acclaimed novelist Ray Robertson comes a rollicking Great Gatsby of the 60s - a sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll-suffused modern tragedy. For Bill Hansen, things couldn't be better. He's got a beautiful folk-singer girlfriend, a job at Toronto's coolest bookstore and, most of all, he's got Yorkville, which in 1966 is nothing short of paradise for a boy from the suburbs.

Clark Blaise's Lunar Attractions is the story of David Greenwood, the fantasy-driven son of a too-charming, two-timing furniture salesman. David is cerebral, sensitive, sickly, and inexperienced'but when a shocking sexual awakening propels him into a world of murder and extortion, his adolescent illusions are stripped bare, and his relationship with his father changes forever.

A critical and commercial success in German, Kahn & Engelmann tells the story of a Jewish family from rural Hungary, their immigration to Vienna in the great days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, their loves, business ventures and failings, and their eventual tragic destruction. Narrated by Peter Engelmann, who wishes only to forget his past, this highly original novel recreates a vanished Vienna with salty humour and humanity.

Luanda, Angola, 1990. Ndalu is a normal twelve-year old boy in an extraordinary time and place. Like his friends, he enjoys laughing at his teachers, avoiding homework and telling tall tales. But Ndalu's teachers are Cuban, his homework assignments include writing essays on the role of the workers and peasants, and the tall tales he and his friends tell are about a criminal gang called Empty Crate which specializes in attacking schools.

The year is 1976. The protagonists are women, writers, guerilla fighters, friends. And as they explore the contradictions of political commitment, and move toward the most shocking reversal in Latin American literature, their story emerges as one of the great narratives of the twentieth century--and The End of the Story as the definitive novel of Argentina's Dirty War.

In the rough hill country of rural Catalonia, the Spanish Civil War is over and the villagers live under occupation by the fascist Civil Guard. With his father in jail, facing possible execution as a subversive, and his mother working long hours in a factory, eleven-year-old Andreu is sent to live with his grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins in a farmhouse in a remote valley. His inquisitive, self-taught grandmother encourages him to study, but who will Andreu become?

It's 1979 and Tom Buzby is thirteen years old and living in the small town of Chatham with his father and older sister. So far, so normal. But Tom's dad is the local tattoo artist, his older sister might be in love with the new girl in town, and his Mom ran off and shacked up with pastor Bob who runs a Christian evangelical sect. And no one looks at Tom the same since he was brought back from the dead that time when he was eight. Tom delivers the Chatham Daily News, and he can give you all the news that's fit to print about the folks around here.

1131, The Silk Road. Gallienus of Constantinople, a scarred soldier who used to work the city gates, enters a new phase of his life when he meets and falls in love with Misahuen of Gyeongju. But prejudice of same-sex relationships dominates Byzantine society, and both the Emperor and the Church denounce such love. Should Misahuen and Gallienus be discovered, the punishment is castration or death. Fearing he’ll lose Misahuen, Gallienus decides to go with Misahuen when he leaves the city forever.

In war-torn Europe of 1872, Karol and Hart devoted themselves to protecting England and the peace England maintained. Hart was a spy and bodyguard for Karol, a brilliant but hotheaded scientist. Their partnership was almost unstoppable... until Hart could no longer bear to see Karol in danger—or with other men—and seeing Hart repeatedly put his life on the line came to terrify Karol. Then a horrible accident separated them for what they believed would be forever. Now the enemy's plan to kidnap Karol has Hart volunteering to guard him once again.

It’s 1919, and Frank Huddleston has survived the battlefields of the Great War. A serious head injury has left him with amnesia so profound he must re-learn his name every morning from a note posted on the privy door. Gerald “Jersey" Rohn, joined the Army because he wanted to feel like a man, but he returned from the trenches minus a leg and with no goal for his life. He’s plagued by the nightmare of his best friend’s death and has nervous fits, but refuses to associate those things with battle fatigue.