National Network for Equitable Library Service

In Ballast to the White Sea is Malcolm Lowry’s most ambitious work of the mid-1930s. Inspired by his life experience, the novel recounts the story of a Cambridge undergraduate who aspires to be a writer but has come to believe that both his book and, in a sense, his life have already been “written.” After a fire broke out in Lowry’s squatter’s shack, all that remained of In Ballast to the White Sea were a few sheets of paper. Only decades after Lowry’s death did it become known that his first wife, Jan Gabrial, still had a typescript.

Dry Water tells the story of Donald Strand, from the time of his arrival as a ten-year-old orphan at his relatives’ Manitoba farm in 1890 to his apogee as a successful farmer. It recounts the crises he faces during a troubled marriage and the great stock market crash of 1929. His life parallels the growth and development of Manitoba during the same period. Stead considered Dry Water, written in 1934–1935, to be his crowning achievement. He was unable to find a publisher for it during his lifetime, although an abridged edition was published by Tecumseh Press in 1983.

From the Canadian Short Story Library, twelve stories from Desmond Pacey, a major figure in Canadian Literature and criticism. The twelve stories are typical of Pacey's story-telling technique and what emerges from them is a distinctive, even powerful optimism, charity, tolerance and deep understanding of human nature. The sombre side of life is honestly portrayed and juxtaposed against the importance of love as a unifying force.

The 1940 Under the Volcano—hidden for too long in the shadows of Lowry’s 1947 masterpiece—differs from the latter in significant ways. It is a bridge between Lowry’s 1930s fiction (especially In Ballast to the White Sea) and the 1947 Under the Volcano itself. Joining the recently published Swinging the Maelstrom and In Ballast to the White Sea, The 1940 Under the Volcano takes its rightful place as part of Lowry’s exciting 1930s/early-40s trilogy. Scholars have only recently begun to pay systematic attention to convergences and divergences between this earlier work and the 1947 version.

Meet Me on the Barricades is Harrison’s most experimental work. The novel includes a series of fantasy sequences that culminate in a scene heavily indebted to the Nighttown episode in James Joyce’s Ulysses (the novel was published a year before James Thurber’s better-known short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”). The novel is also Harrison’s only foray into satire—an especially unexpected turn given that the Spanish Civil War literary canon, and particularly works of literature written in the midst of the war, tend towards earnestness rather than irony.

A young Canadian marches over the Pyrenees and enters into history by joining the International Brigades—men and women from around the world who volunteered to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. This new edition of Ted Allan’s novel, This Time a Better Earth, reintroduces readers to the electrifying milieu of the Spanish Civil War and Madrid, which for a short time in the 1930s became the epicentre of a global struggle between democracy and fascism.

Bonté III was five years old. A cow at that age is at her prime. Prime is an accounting term. A dairy farm is a business and must be managed as such. From this perspective, Bonté III’s days were numbered. Numbered is not an empty word. She had been a good representative of her breed. A cow, after all, has no need to try to be a cow. Her life is that of a cow: a predetermined cycle that is easily reflected on a balance sheet. She eats. She drinks. She ruminates. She urinates. She defecates. All this has a cost. She ovulates. She bears a calf. She gives birth. She produces milk.

Un jeune garçon avale les pages de cinq livres dans lesquels croit-il, se trouve le code qui pourrait permettre à un capitaine et à ses acolytes de retracer son père disparu. Afin de sauver sa vie, un explorateur se voit contraint de raconter à la tribu amérindienne qui le retient prisonnier les histoires qu'il connaît, qu'il crée ou qu'il combine. Une femme ravissante se plaît à réinventer sa propre histoire lors des soirées mondaines. Perdu sur les glaces à la dérive dans l'Atlantique Nord, un autre explorateur est tourment. Par les sempiternelles questions d'un enfant.

Un prétendu éditeur découvre un mystérieux coffre rempli de manuscrits. C'est là le prétexte pour retracer les pas de personnages associés à la famille Ashfaq, issue de la bourgeoisie musulmane d'une ville indienne dévastée par les émeutes religieuses des années 1990. Au fil des nouvelles de ce recueil, le lecteur voyage en Inde, en Birmanie, en Angleterre, en République tchèque, au Groenland, aux États-Unis et au Canada, de la Seconde Guerre mondiale à aujourd'hui. Il y découvre une gamme de personnages et de sociétés aux prises avec la violence et l'oppression.

Le Carnaval du quotidien, version française de Dressing up for the Carnival, est le troisième et dernier recueil de nouvelles de Carol Shields. Les nouvelles de Shields dévoilent le côté ludique et l'imagination féconde de cette grande dame de la littérature canadienne. Une grève de météorologistes provoque une suspension totale du climat (Acclimatement). Le gouvernement instaure une taxe sur les fenêtres qui incite la population à se replier dans la noirceur en recouvrant toutes les surfaces vitreuses des demeures (Fenêtres). Stop!