If I had to describe the relationship between the United States and Canada, I’d say we’re siblings raised on the same continent. Canada often feels overshadowed and overlooked by their older, bigger, louder sibling to the south. Many Canadian authors seem to try to cater to that bigger sibling to get noticed, setting their books in various places in the US (or Europe) rather than their own backyard. While I love a lot of Canadian novels about other places, I also really enjoy reading a novel about places I know and love.
If you’re looking for some great Canadian fiction about our great Canadian places, check out this list (and let me know what you’d add to it!).
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Betty Jane Hegerat
Betty Jane Hegerat is a native of Western Canada who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and currently teaches at the University of Calgary. She has written two novels, a collection of short stories, and a book of creative nonfiction. Her writing is deeply descriptive, diving into the lives of relatable, complex, and everyday characters.
Running Toward Home is set at the Calgary Zoo and takes place over 24 hours as a foster child and his birth and foster moms wrestle with their choices. Delivery takes place on Quadra Island, BC, as a mother struggles with her daughter’s unplanned pregnancy. The Boy explores the Cook murders in Alberta in 1959, through both nonfiction and fiction.
Bill Gaston
Bill Gaston was born in the 50s in Washington but now makes his home in Canada, teaching writing at the University of Victoria. He has worked as a logger, fishing guide, and semi-pro hockey player and is the author of a collection of poetry, three dramas, and numerous novels.
The Order of Good Cheer is historical fiction about Canadian explorer Samuel de Champlain, juxtaposed against the contemporary story of Andy Winslow in Prince Rupert, who is inspired by Champlain’s “order.” Sointula is the story of Evelyn, a middle-aged woman who abandons her privileged existence to kayak into the Canadian wilderness in search of her estranged son Tom.
Charlotte Gray
Charlotte Gray is an award-winning Canadian historian and author whose biographies bring influential people of the past alive for readers today.
Sisters in the Wilderness is the story of two Canadian women who were not only pioneers but also poets and authors themselves. Mrs. King is a biography of Isabel Mackenzie King, daughter of the “Little Rebel” William Lyon Mackenzie and mother of Canada’s longest serving prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Nellie McClung is a short biography of Canada’s most famous feminist. The Massey Murder tackles another famous Canadian murder mystery, like Hegerat’s The Boy.
L. M. Montgomery
Lucy Maude Montgomery put Prince Edward Island on the map with Anne of Green Gables. Like Anne and many of her other heroines, she grew up on PEI, practically a lonely orphan raised by her grandparents, and then did her teacher’s training. She taught for a few years but was soon making enough from writing to stop teaching. After her marriage, she moved to Ontario. She was the first Canadian woman to be made a member of the British Royal Society of Arts and is a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.
Although I remember having a hard time getting to like Anne as a child, I do thoroughly love this novel now and regularly return to it. I also love Emily of New Moon, another novel about a young girl with a big imagination. My all-time favourite Montgomery novel, however, is The Blue Castle, a novel about a young woman in her 30s who has been bullied and overlooked by her entire family, and finally gains the courage to be herself and do what she wants.
Margaret Laurence
Margaret Laurence is one of Canada’s best-known authors and poets. She was born in Manitoba, attended college in Winnipeg, moved to England and Africa after her marriage, returned to Vancouver, then divorced her husband and settled in Ontario.
The Stone Angel is set in Manawaka (a fictional small-town in Manitoba) and is the story of Hagar Shipley looking back on her life and choices. I nearly memorized this novel to write my English 12 exam about it, and recently reread it and enjoyed it much more than I had in high school. A Jest of God is also set in Manawaka and was made into a movie about Rachel’s summer ordeal. The Fire-Dwellers is about Rachel’s sister, who lives in Vancouver and thinks of herself as commonplace and ordinary, but is shown to be extraordinary. The Diviners returns to Manawaka with the story of Morag Gunn, a writer struggling with her past history (like Hagar) and looking at the Scottish and Metis roots of Manawaka.
Richard Wagamese
Richard Wagamese is an Ojibwe author who was born in Ontario in 1955, worked for a newspaper in Saskatchewan in the 1970s, and died in BC in 2017. He wrote eight novels, a book of poetry, and five works of nonfiction, for which he won numerous awards. He was a guest lecturer at numerous Canadian universities, including the University of Victoria, where I had the opportunity to take a class with him. His writing displays a deep love of the land and the connection between land and people.
His novel Indian Horse was adapted into a movie. His novels Medicine Walk and Starlight tell the story of Frank Starlight, a First Nations boy who grows up and farms in the interior of BC.
Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies is widely recognized as one of Canada’s best authors. He lived in Ontario, won the Governor General’s Literary Award, and founded Massey College at the University of Toronto. His Deptford trilogy is set in the fictional small town of Deptford, Ontario. These three books were written between 1970 and 1975, using Jungian psychology to delve into the characters.
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