As the winter comes to an end, you might be looking for a fictional world to explore as you enjoy the sun’s warm rays.
At CBC Books, we’ve curated a list of Canadian fiction titles publishing this spring. This is the first installment of the list, featuring the books that came out in January through March.
There’s a wide variety of titles to dive into, both from authors we already know and love and those who are making their debuts.
Is This A Cry For Help? is a novel about a librarian who takes medical leave after undergoing a mental breakdown since learning that her ex-boyfriend passed away. When she returns to work, people are calling for book bans and a second look at the library’s DEI policies. With the help of her community, colleagues and wife, she’ll have to help rally for intellectual freedom and show the power of libraries.
Is This a Cry for Help? is out now.
Emily Austin is a writer based in Ottawa who studied English literature and library science at Western University. Her other books include Gay Girl Prayers, Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, We Could Be Rats and Interesting Facts About Space.
Good Guys follows Claire Talbot, a publicist at an international aid organization, who arranges for a famous actress to volunteer with the organization in an attempt to keep the charity from going bankrupt. Soon after, the charity’s shady past begins to come to light, and Claire and her colleagues have to confront the fact that they’ve harmed the people they hoped to save.
Good Guys is out now.
Sharon Bala is also the author of The Boat People, which was a championed by talk show host and singer Mozhdah Jamalzadah on Canada Reads in 2018 and was a finalist for the 2019 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Bala lives in St. John’s.
Northern Bull takes place in a single day in Yellowknife, where different lives and their conflicts hilariously intersect. Jacques is a fisherman trying to convince his landlord not to tear down his rundown house, who is sent on a wild moose chase, accused by his volatile hunting partner of stealing a prized moose head. When Maggie accidentally breaks Jacques’ window, she gets roped into his quest, and a wild night of adventure ensues.
Northern Bull is out now.
Michelle Swallow is an author who lives in Yellowknife. She is also the author of The Mackenzie River Guide, a nonfiction guidebook about paddling Canada’s longest river.
In The Winter Witch, two sisters, Élisabeth and Marthe, make a reluctant journey from Normandy, France to Quebec in the 17th century, after a scandal makes them ineligible for marriage in their home village. Élisabeth is convinced that coming to Montreal, the holiest place on Earth, will help free her from the curse she’s certain lives inside her. But when she’s unsuccessful, Marthe suggests she turn to Jeanne Roy, thought to be a powerful witch, for help instead.
The Winter Witch is out now.
Jennifer Chevalier is the showrunner of The House, CBC Radio’s political show. She lives in Ottawa. The Winter Witch is her first novel.
Seven Heavens Away tells the story of a Palestinian teen named Aziz whose close friend was killed by an Israeli amid violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2015. As Aziz and another friend struggle and grieve, Aziz develops feelings for a Jewish girl, causing uncertainty and a quest for answers.
Seven Heavens Away is out now.
Ashraf Zaghal is a Palestinian Canadian author and environmental engineer who was raised in Jerusalem and now lives in Ontario. He has published four collections of poetry and his work has also been published in The Literary Review and Metamorphoses.
Variations on a Dream is a novel about the relationship between Sarah and Trevor and the difference between its presentation to the world and the reality beneath the surface. Sarah has spent years doing the brunt of childcare and housework all while trying to keep her creative spark and career alive, but is feeling burnt out. Trevor is lonely and disconnected from his family and is constantly worried that his artistic work is mediocre. The couple then stumble upon an amateur porn film that comes close to derailing their connection to reality.
Variations on a Dream is out now.
Angélique Lalonde is a writer from northern B.C. She is author of the Giller-shortlisted short story collection Glorious Frazzled Things.
In the novel Oyster, author Amelia Cameron is dangerously close to being a one-book wonder. Struggling with writer’s block, she returns to her the family farm in Prince Edward County after her father’s sudden death, and reunites with her three siblings for the first time in years. As the siblings bicker, Amelia’s niece asks her for advice about writing her first novel. After a weekend of work, the book they come up with has the power to change everything.
Oyster is out now.
Marianne Ackerman is a novelist, playwright and journalist. She has written three novels, two short story collections and a dozen plays. Originally from Prince Edward County in Ontario, she currently lives in Montreal.
The Fourth Princess is the story of two women living in a once-forsaken mansion on the outskirts of Shanghai’s International Settlement. American Caroline Stanton is the new mistress of the mansion and Lisan Liu is her secretary. As they get sucked deeper into the manor’s dark history, guests at a party begin to bring forth secrets from the past that threaten the status quo.
The Fourth Princess is out now.
Janie Chang was born in Taiwan and lives in British Columbia. She is the author of five published historical fiction novels, including Three Souls, Dragon Springs Road, The Library of Legends, The Porcelain Moon and The Phoenix Crown, which was co-written with Kate Quinn.
In The Unravelling of Ou, Minoo has to decide between her constant companion, a sock puppet named Ecology Paul, and her relationships with her daughter and newborn granddaughter. On the way home from the hospital, Ecology Paul tells how Minoo got to this point. It’s the story of a young Iranian woman exiled to Canada due to teen pregnancy who finds solace in a sock puppet that helps her feel seen.
The Unravelling of Ou is out now.
Hollay Ghadery is an Iranian Canadian writer and radio host based in rural Ontario. Her memoir, Fuse, won the 2023 Canadian Book Club Award.
Fancy Gap is a dystopian novel telling the story of three generations of a family who have all gone separate ways. Nana Grace has become a cult leader in the southern Appalachian mountains, her daughter Jane is struggling with breast cancer and supported by an evangelical community, and Jane’s son Dalton is dishonorably discharged from the army because of his disregard for the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Fancy Gap is out now.
Zak Jones is a Canadian American writer based in Toronto. In 2023, he won the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Fancy Gap is his first novel
In Little Spoons, after her grandmother dies, Mary inherits a house in Newfoundland and moves there with her son. She then starts to look into her grandmother’s death and discovers that the community has a lot of similar cases of missing women. The more she learns, the more she’s drawn into stories of supernatural encounters and witchcraft.
Little Spoons is out now.
Diedre J. Halbot is an author of French-Indigenous heritage from the Bay of Islands in Newfoundland. Little Spoons is her first book.
Night Birds delves into the potential future where capitalism has driven ecological destruction across the world. A mining disaster in Transylvania sends toxic cyanide into water systems, causing a couple, Farrar and Clio, living on the other side of the world to take a deeper look at their investments. On the run from an international criminal, Clio and their daughter flee to a remote island, where Clio begins to understand where the family’s money comes from.
Night Birds is out now.
Margaret Sweatman is a Winnipeg-based writer and performer. She has written seven novels, including When Alice Lay Down With Peter, which won the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize in 2002.
In Liberty Street, an editorial assistant at Chatelaine magazine receives a tip from an inmate at a woman’s prison alleging horrific conditions. Hoping for her big break, she decides to go undercover to see what’s really going on in those walls. Decades later, a detective looking into remains discovered in an unmarked grave stumbles upon a story with hauntingly personal connections.
Liberty Street is out now.
Heather Marshall is also the author of the novels Looking For Jane and The Secret History of Audrey James. She is based near Toronto.
The Brink of Something Beautiful is a book set in 1990s Newfoundland. It follows the recently widowed Ruby Nolan, who is filled with grief and guilt, and wonders if she even wanted to marry her late husband to begin with. As she grapples with her conflicting feelings, Ruby meets a pregnant teen who sparks old memories of the past.
The Brink of Something Beautiful is out now.
Bobbi French is the author of The Good Women of Safe Harbour, which won N.L. Reads 2023, and was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Born in Newfoundland, she lives in Nova Scotia.
Nightshade is a novel set in the tobacco belt of Southern Ontario in the 1980s. It follows Zelda, a young Romany migrant worker who is hired as an assistant by the wealthy couple who own the tobacco farm Zelda’s family works on.
Nightshade is out now.
Lynn Hutchinson Lee lives in Toronto. She is also the author of the novella Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens. In 2022, an excerpt of Nightshade won the Joy Kogawa Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Swedish Writers’ Festival Prize.
Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive is a collection of short stories brimming with elements of psychological realism, horror and speculative fiction, all tied together by the different types of life-altering love.
Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive is out now.
Alison Gadsby is a Toronto writer. Breathing Is How Some People Stay Alive is her first book.
Weird Babies is a collection of short stories devoted entirely to tales of weird babies, representing the tender parts that everyone has inside them.
Weird Babies is out now.
Jaclyn Desforges is a poet and picture book author. She is the author of Danger Flower and Why Are You So Quiet? She was shortlisted for the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize for her poem I Can Communicate If Communication Is Another Form Of Sinking. She lives in Hamilton, Ont.
Cherry Beach is a literary detective novel that explores racism, class division and a disturbing murder case involving two girls in downtown Toronto. The detectives assigned to the case are outcasts paired together to keep them from drawing others into their perceived drama. But as the case begins to draw more attention, the two are suddenly thrust into the spotlight.
Cherry Beach is out now.
Don Gillmor is a writer and journalist from Toronto. He won the Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction for his book To the River. His other novels include Kanata, Mount Pleasant, Long Change and Breaking and Entering.
In The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts, online therapist Eleanor’s mother dies, leaving her completely lost. Her mother’s final directive was to use her inheritance to buy a house — and she chooses a model home in a new development. After moving in, a ceaseless, heavy rain begins to fall, soaking into the cracks in the house and the earth around it, causing past ghosts to reappear and Eleanor to question her grasp on reality.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is out now.
Kim Fu is a Calgary-born author who now lives in Seattle. She is the author of four books, including For Today I Am a Boy, The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore and the short story collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, which was a finalist for the Giller Prize.
The Book Tour is a romantic comedy novel about Ana Movilian, who quits medical school to become an influencer and write a self-help book. After her former publicist resigns, she’s forced to go on her book tour with highbrow literary snob Ryan, who begrudgingly took on the job at the last minute. Though the two butt heads at first, attraction grows throughout their journey, but they’ll have to decide if their dreams are worth the risk.
The Book Tour is out now.
Emily Ohanjanians lives in Toronto. The Book Tour is her first novel. She formerly worked as a senior editor for a major commercial fiction publisher.
In Wild People Quiet, set in Saskatchewan in the 1940s, a Métis woman named Florence is hiding her true identity while living in a primarily white town, dyeing her hair blonde and doing what she can to blend in. When she meets a group of Métis farm workers in town for the season, she’s forced to come to terms with her hidden past and must decide how she wants to move forward.
Wild People Quiet is out now.
Tara Gereaux, a citizen of the Metis Nation-Saskatchewan, lives in Regina. She is the author of Saltus and Size of a Fist, both of which were shortlisted for Saskatchewan Book Awards.
Thirty Feet Under is a novel about the dark and tangled world of art thievery. When the art unit of the Italian police reach out to FBI agent Kate Taylor after a museum in Italy gets robbed and the guard is murdered, Taylor is excited to work on her first real case. Once she takes it on, she realizes that the robbery is tied to a 3,000-year-old mystery related to a lost tomb — and that she may have bitten off more than she can chew.
Thirty Feet Under is out now.
William Wodhams is a British Columbia-based writer. Declan Tucker’s Grand Debut, his first novel, was published in 2024. Thirty Feet Under was one of the finalists chosen by the Crime Writers of Canada for their 2024 Best Unpublished Crime Novel Award.
The Golden Boy by a novel about a Canadian who loses a high-profile television job in the United States and hides away in Maui to rewrite the past. A year in, he receives a mysterious letter, drawing him from his reclusive hideaway and into a new adventure.
The Golden Boy is out now.
Patricia Finn is a writer and editor who lives in Vancouver. She has worked for production companies in Canada and New Zealand, including CBC and Television New Zealand.
In The Fake Matchmaker, Manisha Patel moves back in with her parents after a messy breakup with a cheating ex. She struggles with the massive life change and all the things that come with it. She’s even more annoyed when she’s forced to help out her dad’s friend’s son, Rohit, who’s stylish, arrogant and, rumour has it, a cheater. But when she finds out she might not be able to start a family, she decided to take matters into her own hands and start a fake matchmaking service so she has her pick of eligible bachelors.
The Fake Matchmaker is out now.
Sonya Singh is the Toronto-based author of Sari, Not Sari, which is currently being adapted into a TV series. She is also a TV and film writer, currently working with Hallmark.
There’s Always More to Say is a short story collection that delves deeply into the lives of characters as they struggle for more. In stories that are filled with humour, warmth and humanity, Natalie Southworth writes about characters struggling with problems commonly felt in the world today.
There’s Always More to Say is out March 14.
Southworth was born in England and lives in Montreal. There’s Always More to Say is her first book.
In Hovel, an unnamed narrator and her husband move to the Rocky Mountains for his work. Stuck spending hours alone with little to keep her busy, she becomes fascinated by the way her Scottish ancestors lived and begins to adopt some of their ways. Cooking by candlelight and peeing in the woods, her husband is weary and neighbours start to notice.
Hovel is out March 17.
Ailsa Ross is a writer from Scotland who currently lives in the Alberta. She has written for The Guardian, BBC and National Geographic. Hovel is her first novel.
In Definitely Thriving, Clemence Lathbury finds herself taking her unhappy marriage apart after getting caught having an affair with the neighbours. She then decides to move back to Toronto, where’s she’s from, determined to make a new life for herself, free of romance and drama. But as she embraces her freedom and all that comes with it, she finds herself attracted to two very different suitors and caught up in hilarious neighbourhood drama.
Definitely Thriving is out March 17.
Kerry Clare is a novelist, writer and the editor of 49thShelf.com, a Canadian books website. She also writes the blog Pickle Me This. She is the author of Asking for a Friend, Waiting for a Star to Fall and Mitzi Bytes and the editor of The M Word: Conversations about Motherhood. She lives in Toronto.
Love Song is a book about a college student who goes through a bad breakup and holes up in her family’s Tahoe lake house. When she gets there, ready to hide away from the world, she comes head-to-head with someone who turned her down when she confessed her feelings in high school. Years later, their connection is magnetic. While they both know it can’t last, it’s beginning to feel like something more.
Love Song is out March 17.
Elle Kennedy is a bestselling romance author from Toronto. She has written more than 50 books in 11 different series, including The Charlie Method, Bad Girl Reputation and The Dixon Rule.
In Mother Is Watching, Mathilde “Tilly” Crewson, is an art conservator who is trying to restore a famous painting that was damaged in a fire. But when she starts, unusual things begin happening to her, including an unexpected pregnancy and a visit from her mother, who died years before. As the painting’s sinister forces intensify, she realizes that the only way to escape it is to destroy it.
Mother Is Watching is out March 17.
Karma Brown is the author of 10 novels, including What Wild Woman Do, Recipe For A Perfect Wife and Come Away with Me. She is also a journalist and has written for SELF, Redbook and Chatelaine. She lives in Toronto.
Honeysuckle is a novel about a lonely boy, Rory, and Daye, a girl made of flowers specifically to be his friend. The two develop a close friendship, but as the seasons change, and the weather’s effect on Daye become clear, Rory starts delving into the world of magic to keep her alive.
Honeysuckle is out March 24.
Bar Fridman-Tell is a Toronto-based writer who has worked as a bartender, a bookseller, a translator and a library assistant. Honeysuckle is a her debut novel.
Afterbirth is a horror novel about a woman who travels to Vancouver to stay with her sister as she recovers from surgery in her old and haunted apartment building. While they do find comfort watching horror movies, the on-screen terror seeps into their lives and wreaks havoc on the sisters’ relationship.
Afterbirth is out March 24.
Emma Cleary is a Vancouver-based writer originally from Liverpool, England. She is the editor-in-chief of Geist Magazine. Afterbirth is her debut novel.
Amapiano Eyes tells the story of a DJ and philosopher working as a construction labourer when the pandemic hits and he falls upon hard times. In order to get by, he and his girlfriend begin to sell drugs for a corrupt former detective. On top of that, they’re dealing with health struggles, aging parents and a loved one’s addiction, as they’re forced to decide which path they see for their futures.
Amapiano Eyes is out March 24.
D. Nandi Odhiambo is the author of five novels, including Smells Like Stars. Born in Kenya, he moved to Winnipeg in 1977 and later attended McGill University. He lives in O’ahu.
Rust and Bone tells the story of a boy in Ukraine who is taken to a work camp after his village is destroyed by Russian soldiers in the Second World War. Before the train arrives however, it is hit by a bomb and derails, giving the boy a chance to escape. In a desperate hunt for survival, he struggles across the war-torn nation searching for the border and safety.
Rust and Bone is out March 31.
Dietrich Kalteis is the author of 12 novels, including Dirty Little War and Under an Outlaw Moon which won the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel. He lives in Vancouver.
Guns Across the River is the sixth title in Sam Weibe’s Wakeland series. The book is about the dark alleys of Vancouver’s underworld and private investigator Dave Wakeland who is sucked into a messy case after rescuing a woman trying to take her own life.
Guns Across the River will be available on March 31.
Wiebe is the author of the Wakeland detective series, which includes Invisible Dead, Cut You Down, Hell and Gone and Sunset and Jericho. His debut novel, Last of the Independents, won the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. He lives in New Westminster, B.C.
Moonlight Murder is a mystery novel, and part of Uzma Jalaluddin’s Detective Aunty series. In Moonlight Murder, Kausar Khan, Detective Aunty, moves back to Toronto to be closer to her family and finds herself trying to solve another murder case — this time, revolving around a young man named Mateen, who happened to be close to her granddaughter. As she investigates, the similarities between this case and the mysterious death of her own son, 20 years earlier, become so striking that she begins to wonder if they are linked.
Moonlight Murder will be available on March 31.
Jalaluddin is the Toronto-based author of Detective Aunty, Ayesha At Last, Hana Khan Carries On, and Yours for the Season. She is also the writer of the play The Rishta and a former contributor to the Toronto Star and The Atlantic. She works as a high school English teacher.
A Widow’s Charm is a fantasy romance novel about Lady Hildegarde Croft, who was a maidservant before she married Lord Thorgoode Croft. After her husband mysteriously dies, her fate and that of her people are up in the air. When Lord Elmwood, a necromancer, comes to town, Lady Croft decides to use her charms to convince him to resurrect her late husband. But his pull is stronger than his power, and they both begin to fall for one another.
A Widow’s Charm will be available on March 31.
Caitlyn Paxson is an author based in Prince Edward Island who has also worked as an artistic director, harpist, book reviewer and shepherdess. A Widow’s Charm is her first book.
In Son of Nobody, academic Harlow Donne decides to leave his daughter and troubled marriage behind in Canada when he’s offered the opportunity to study rare papyrus fragments at Oxford. One of them contains an undiscovered account of the Trojan War from a Greek commoner, known as the son of nobody, which Harlow translates and interprets, dedicating the epic poem to his daughter. As he dives deeper into the ancient text, the themes ring true thousands of years later and cause Harlow to connect with the work in a powerful way.
Son of Nobody will be available on March 31.
Yann Martel is the author of Life of Pi, which won the Man Booker Prize was adapted into an Oscar-winning film and a play. Life of Pi was a contender on Canada Reads 2003, defended by writer Nancy Lee. Martel has written eight other fiction and nonfiction books. He lives in Saskatoon.
And Then Again Begin is volume 4 of The No Safeguards Quartet by H. Nigel Thomas. It is a novel about two married men living in Montreal. While their lives look idyllic to their friends, they hide their relationship from their parents in St. Vincent, and have to contend with one of the men’s unresolved trauma and his former life as a Methodist minister.
And Then Again Begin will be available on March 31.
Thomas is a Vincentian Canadian author of 14 books that span genres of fiction, poetry and literary criticism. Among his awards are the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize and the Jackie Robinson Professional of the Year Award. He lives in Montreal.
