National Network for Equitable Library Service

A long-forgotten scrapbook stirs Billy Bryan's memories of a distant past and beckons him and his grown daughter on a reluctant journey to relive his role in history. In 1947 Billy Bryan was playing winter ball in Cuba, his future as uncertain as the island country. Then one fateful night Bryan witnessed a young student radical named Fidel unleash an amazing curveball.

Bujumbura, Burundi is one of the last places you would expect to find Thomas Brossard. Once a powerful cabinet minister in Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government, Thomas never had a particular interest in the continent of Africa and the concerns it represented. That was his wife Louise’s domain. But, after an embarrassing election loss, Thomas will do just about anything to regain political power and improve his wife’s estimation of him.

Ingersoll Lockwood invented the fictional character Baron Trump in 1890 for a two-part sci-fi/fantasy series about a privileged boy who undertakes a sequence of fantastic voyages. The style of the Baron Trump series-a mix of fantasy and young-reader-oriented science fiction-anticipated and may have influenced L. Frank Baum's Oz series. The second in that series, Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey, describes Baron's trip to the earth's interior via an opening in the Russian Arctic.

This near-future political satire about the election of a new president argues that socialism and populism will eventually give rise to chaos and disaster. Authored by Ingersoll Lockwood-around whom conspiracy theories concerning the sci-fi/fantasy character Baron Trump now abound-1900; or, The Last President is notable for both its clairvoyance and its reflection on the social movements and political climate of its time.

Joe DeMarco's long­time employer John Mahoney has kept an explosive secret: he has a son, and that son has just been shot dead in a bar in Manhattan. Mahoney immediately dispatches DeMarco to his native New York to provide the prosecutor with any assistance necessary, but with five bystanders willing to testify against the accused, the case seems like a slam ­dunk--that is, until it appears someone has interfered with the witnesses.

Romania, 1989. Three friends are enjoying comfortable lives, but one of them works for the secret police and is reporting on the whole group. Terror ensues as Adina and her friends struggle to keep mind and body intact in a world pervaded by complicity and permeated with fear.

Mesdames, faites-vous plaisir en vous offrant ce roman exceptionnel. Une histoire touchante et peu banale. Samuelle Bergeron, épouse du premier ministre du Canada, a une vie lourdement hypothéquée. Elle se conforme aux exigences que lui impose son mari Bertrand qu’elle surnomme B, comme dans bourreau. Lors de sa déconfiture politique, Bertrand la remercie de ses services en tant qu'épouse officielle. Abandonnée à une nouvelle liberté, la passion et l’intimité deviennent son lot, ce qui la plonge dans la vulnérabilité.

It is autumn, 1997 and Kate Thuringer is back in her hometown to help her college-age daughter settle into her new life. A professional photographer, Kate has lived in Western Canada for nearly three decades. Before her marriage, however, she survived a turbulent year in which Québécois terrorists kidnapped a British diplomat and murdered an innocent politician. The middle-aged Kate is obsessed with the past, particularly with the memory of a poor francophone student with whom she had been involved during the historic October Crisis.

At twenty, Sheyda Porrouya's life is almost over. Born in Iran on the day staunchly orthodox mullas declare the birth of the Islamic Republic, she is witness to their purging of the country of all things Western and un-Islamic. To make matters worse, as she matures, Sheyda seems increasingly unable to distinguish between fairy tale and reality. And her behaviour becomes increasingly erratic. Accused of killing her mother, Sheyda is sentenced to death by hanging.

Elena and Mahfouz meet in Montreal in the spring of 2008. That summer, however, Mahfouz doesn't return from a trip to Cairo, and his father is picked up and held indefinitely for unknown charges on undisclosed evidence. No longer in contact with each other, Elena and Mahfouz must separately come to terms with their historical situation, preparing for a future shaped by forces they struggle to understand.