Fall for Canadian Fiction: titles to watch for autumn 2012 - part 2

Here are five more tempting Canadian fiction titles, as promised in yesterday's post Fall for Canadian Fiction: titles to watch for autumn 2012 - part 1 :

The Crimes of Hector Tomas (M)
by Ian Colford (October).

Set in South America, from a Halifax author. "The Crimes of Hector Tomás is an epic novel about disappearance and deception, family and nation."

Milosz (M)
by Cordelia Strube (October 1).

Although Strube is by no means a new Canadian author, she is still one that could be considered up-and-coming. She has 8 novels to her credit, but she still isn't a household name, although her witty and insightful books have a lot of indie cred. Her latest settles on the luckless Milo, and the 11 year old neighbour Robertson that he tries to do right by. "... Robertson gets bullied and his dad moves out, Milo is finally spurred to action. Milo being Milo, though, even his best intentions go awry, and soon Robertson’s dad is in the hospital, Milo’s lost in the woods during an acting experiment and Gustaw, his dad, may have returned from the dead."

Sussex Drive (M)
by Linda Svendsen (October 2).

If the breakout success of Terry Fallis' originally self-published novel The Best Laid Plans tells us anything, it should be that is a literary landscape of weighty issue based and often historical novels, sometimes Canadians just want a book that will give them a good laugh. "Torn from the headlines, Sussex Drive is a rollicking, cheeky, alternate history of big-ticket political items in Canada told from the perspectives of Becky Leggatt (the sublimely capable and manipulative wife of a hard-right Conservative prime minister) and just a wink away at Rideau Hall, Lise Lavoie (the wildly exotic and unlikely immigrant Governor General)—two wives and mothers living their private lives in public."

Dear Life (M)
by Alice Munro (October 16).

It doesn't get more "big name" than this in Canadian fiction. The new collection from Canada's pre-eminent short story writer. "With her peerless ability to give us the essence of a life in often brief but spacious and timeless stories, Alice Munro illumines the moment a life is shaped...these stories ... about departures and beginnings, accidents, dangers, and homecomings both virtual and real, paint a vivid and lasting portrait of how strange, dangerous, and extraordinary the ordinary life can be."

Box of the Dead (M)
by Beatrice MacNeil (October 30).

Three time Dartmouth Book Award winning Cape Breton author MacNeil returns with a novel once again set on the island. "The Box of the Dead centers on Ivadoile, who was widowed early and has run a boarding house on Cape Breton for many years in the splendid home left to her by her doctor husband."