Swarm (38 page)

by Tim Bowling

Finalist for the 2012 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize

During the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, Anson Baird, a surgeon for the Union Army, is on the front line tending to the wounded. As the number of casualties rises, a mysterious soldier named John comes to Anson's aid. Deeply affected by the man's selfless actions, Anson soon realizes that John is no ordinary soldier, and that he harbours a dangerous secret. In the bizarre aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, this secret forges an intense bond between the two men.

Twenty years later on the Fraser River in British Columbia, Anson arrives to find his old comrade-in-arms mysteriously absent, an apparent victim of the questionable business ethics of the pioneer salmon canners. Haunted by the violence of his past, and disillusioned with his present, Anson is compelled to discover the fate of his missing friend, a fate inextricably linked to his own.

by Patricia Westerhof

Marta Elzinga has been searching for a sign. When she spots an elusive mink on the shoreline of the Toronto Island Airport, she thinks it is a message. The pigeon that boards the subway at Bathurst Station is the second sign. But how to read these dispatches?

Plagued with indecision and prone to magical thinking, Marta needs direction. A floundering guidance counsellor, she struggles to meet the needs of her students, as well as those of her charming but unstable husband. During a tour of historical buildings in Toronto, Marta visits an abandoned subway station and runs into a former student. He invites her to join him in some urban exploration. And so, in the late evenings, Marta comes to traverse the dangerous geography beneath the city's streets. Through these journeys, Marta confronts the coils in her own thinking about providence, chance, and personal responsibility.

A complex and stirring novel,
The Dove in Bathurst Station
is about finding hope and reconciliation.

by Holley Rubinsky

The nature of relationships is skilfully illuminated in this collection of stories by award-winning author Holley Rubinsky.
South of Elfrida
delves into the lives of those coming face to face with personal truths that require resilience, humour and the ability to change.

With a clear eye for the complexities of the human heart, Rubinsky's stories take the reader to deeper understandings about the nature of love, loss and longing. Spare and rich with wit, these stories celebrate the act of self-renewal.

by Theresa Shea

When Marie MacPherson, a mother of two, finds herself unexpectedly pregnant at thirty-nine, she feels guilty. Her best friend, Elizabeth, has never been able to conceive, despite years of fertility treatments. Marie's dilemma is further complicated when she becomes convinced something is wrong with her baby. She then enters the world of genetic testing and is entirely unprepared for the decision that lies ahead.

Intertwined throughout the novel is the story of Margaret, who gave birth to a daughter with Down syndrome in 1947, when such infants were defined as "unfinished" children. As the novel shifts back and forth through the decades, the lives of the three women converge, and the story speeds to an unexpected conclusion.

With skill and poise, debut novelist Theresa Shea dramatically explores society's changing views of Down syndrome over the past sixty years. The story offers an unflinching and compassionate history of the treatment of people with Down syndrome and their struggle for basic human rights. Ultimately,
The Unfinished Child
is an unforgettable and inspiring tale about the mysterious and complex bonds of family, friendship, and motherhood.

by Katie Boland

With unsentimental prose and ironic dialogue, Katie Boland brings to life a variety of characters who all have one thing in common—a need for something more. A literary debut by a refreshing new voice in fiction, the stories in
Eat Your Heart Out
are about the haunted and heartbroken, about dreamers, losers and love-lost souls. From a sixteen-year-old autistic savant who's sleeping with his best friend's mother, to a tattooed beauty coming to terms with an alcoholic parent, to a newspaper man forever changed by a tender drifter, to a grief counsellor trying to reconcile her own tragic loss, the stories examine the fragility of human relationships and why people love the way they do.

Bold, poignant and affecting,
Eat Your Heart Out
is a clear-eyed exploration of youth, life, love, sex, and death.