Canadian Writers

At three years old, Garnet Raven is taken from his home on an Ojibway reserve and placed in a series of foster homes. In his mid-teens, he escapes at the first available opportunity only to find himself cast adrift on the streets of the big city, trying to avoid its bleak underbelly. By age twenty, Garnet is in jail. While there, he receives an unexpected letter from his long-forgotten family, and the sudden communication from his past spurs him to return to the reserve following his release from jail. Deciding to stay awhile, Garnet's life is changed completely when he is initiated into the ways of the Ojibway - both ancient and modern - by Keeper, a friend of his grandfather, and one of the last founts of their people's history. Garnet comes to discover his sense of place - and of self.

Affectionately combining both the idyllic and ironic, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is as fresh, funny and insightful today as when it was first published in 1912. Set in fictional Mariposa, an Ontario town on the shore of Lake Wissanotti, these sketches present a remarkable range of characters: some irritating, some exasperating, some foolhardy, but all endearing. Painted with the skilful brushstrokes of a great comic artist, the delightful inhabitants of Mariposa represent the people of small towns everywhere.

Ru. In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow - of tears, blood, money. In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec. There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream. As an adult, the waters become rough again: now a mother of two sons, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy's autism.