Fall for Canadian Fiction: titles to watch for autumn 2012 - part 1

I recently listened to an episode of the New York Times Book Review podcast where the host and guest marveled about the amount of fiction from big name authors that is being released this fall. In such a busy season for books, it must be hard for authors to grab even the most enthusiastic readers' attention. Canadian fiction wasn't mentioned at all in the podcast piece, but that is something that our readers definitely want to know about.

There is no shortage of great looking fiction coming from within our borders this season, so if you're looking for new Canadian fiction, you're in luck! Here's 10 titles, (five today and five tomorrow -ed) some from big names and some from authors that you may discover only now. (All quotes from publishers description unless noted otherwise.)

The Age of Hope (M)
by David Bergen (September 4)

This is the latest from a Canadian author who has become one to watch. A novel of the changing life wife of one woman, over decades of shifting societal expectations from the 1930s to modern times. "David Bergen has created an indelible portrait of a seemingly ordinary woman who struggles to accept herself as she is, and in so doing becomes unique."

Astray (M)
by Emma Donoghue (September 11)

Definitely in the "big name" author category for Canadian writers. These short stories are from the Man Booker award winning author of Room. "Goldminer. Counterfeiter. Slave. Dishwasher. Prostitute. Attorney. Sculptor. Mercenary. Elephant. Corpse. The colourful, fascinating characters that roam the pages of Emma Donoghue's stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters, lovers old and new."

The Cat (M)
by Edeet Ravel (September 11)

A story of sadness and survival following an immense loss. "Single mother Elise is completely devoted to her eleven-year-old son; he is her whole world. But that world is destroyed in one terrifying moment when her son is killed in a car accident just outside their home. Suddenly alone, surrounded by memories, Elise faces a future that feels unspeakably bleak—and pointless."

The Selector of Souls (M)
by Shauna Singh Baldwin (September 25)

Set in modern India, a nation caught between tradition and change, the latest from the author of What the Body Remembers is the story of "two fascinating, strong-willed women must deal with the relentless logic forced upon them by survival: Damini, a Hindu midwife, and Anu, who flees an abusive marriage for the sanctuary of the Catholic church."

Magic of Saida (M)
by M.G. Vassanji (September 25)

Vassanji is a two-time winner of the Giller Prize (for The Book of Secrets and The In-between World of Vikram Lall). "The Magic of Saida tells the haunting story of Kamal, a successful Canadian doctor who, in middle age and after decades in North America, decides to return to his homeland of East Africa to find his childhood sweetheart, Saida."