National Network for Equitable Library Service

Thinking to find peace from his troubles, Christian realizes his brother still resents him for leaving with their mother years ago, and he struggles to fight those haunting memories. But the past has ways of coming back, and soon Christian finds himself struggling to separate memory from reality. As two interlaced stories become one, the courtship and marriage of Joe and Marty Miller and the reunion of their two sons, the haunting reality of childhood and loss strikes with a vengeance.

She keeps a tight list and doesn't let anything go unchecked, except for one important misplaced item: a favour to her neighbour. With this broken promise, a series of events unfolds that lead to her friend's death. Was the death preventable had the task been completed? A Governor General's Literary Award–winning play, The List is the riveting story of a woman haunted by internal regret when she fails to critically prioritize her world.

"WHO ARE YOU?" Monsieur Pierre (the immigration official) poses his usual question, but Heinrich's unusual answer sets in motion a metaphysical rollercoaster. Why would a simple statement of name and profession bring so much attention to an unassuming clockmaker? Maybe because that's two more things than anyone else in this place remembers…? Soon, Heinrich is reminding his new friend Frieda of memories she's forgotten and even summoning up a few of his own—of forbidden love, and crimes he may or may not have committed.

Francisco will forever be haunted by the sight of his best friend Juan lying on the floor of a train station, pierced by five bullets. He’ll remember that sight as he flees the political uprising in Uruguay that night. He’ll remember when he’s holding a dying homeless man in Windsor Station in Montreal eight months later. He’ll remember when he’s a successful architect. He’ll remember when he’s having an affair with a Québécoise pianist named Claire.

In the town of Leamington, Ontario, a seventeen-year-old boy is suddenly stricken by a schizophrenic episode and wakes up in hospital. The boy’s name is Calvin, and he is plagued by hallucinations. As the hallucinations persist, Calvin comes to believe that the answer lies in performing one grand and incredible gesture. And so he decides to walk across Lake Erie. In January. The temperatures have been below freezing for weeks. The ice should hold...

To the shock of his family and community, George Woodbury, an affable teacher and beloved husband and father, is arrested for sexual assault at a prestigious prep school in Connecticut. While he awaits his trial in jail, his family is left to pick up the pieces. His wife, Joan, a trauma nurse, is unable to triage her emotional reactions, and vaults between rage and denial. Daughter Sadie, the consummate overachiever, finds herself paralyzed on her boyfriends couch with a bong, while a local author attempts to exploit her story.

James Hillyer, a retired university professor whose life was evocatively described in Wright's novel October, is now barely existing after the death of his beloved daughter in her forties. On a whim, he tries to locate the woman he fell in love with so many years ago on a summer trip to Quebec and through the magic of the Internet he is able to find her. But Odettes present existence seems to be haunted by ghosts from her own past, in particular, the tough ex-con Raoul, with his long-standing grievances and the beginnings of dementia.

In a dark comedy of errors, Iris Murdoch portrays the mischief wrought by Julius, a cynical intellectual who decides to demonstrate through a Machiavellian experiment how easily loving couples, caring friends, and devoted siblings can betray their loyalties. As puppet master, Julius artfully plays on the human tendency to embrace drama and intrigue and to prefer the distraction of confrontations to the difficult effort of communicating openly and honestly.

The narrator of this funny and poignant novel is searching for meaning, going back to his childhood, onto the web and off to New York to find it. He writes lists, obsesses over the nature of time, and finds joy in bouncing balls--all in an effort to find out how best to live life. An utterly enchanting meditation on experience, Naive. Super was a #1 best-seller in Erlend Loe's native Norway.