This year’s Canada Reads has gone all non-fiction. The theme is “True Stories.” I highly recommend Russell Wangersky’s visceral scorcher, Burning Down the House, which made the top 40 just now. I saw him read from it when we were both at The Sparks Literary Festivals in St. John’s. It was the first time another man made me weep. Almost (I stopped listening to prevent said weeping.)
You can see the full list here. The top40 isbased on a 3-week public poll of ‘Whats’ you favourite true story book?”. Newfoundland novelist Wayne Johnston has also made the list for his work of non-fiction, the acclaimed GG-winner, Baltimore’s Mansion. Anyway. Two Great Books. Make them the first of the batch you read. A little more on each below:
Russell Wangersky’s Burning Down the House
Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing myself burnt up the country, all through 2008 and 2009, starting with high praise from fellow Newfoundland writers, like Kenneth J. Harvey, Michael Winter, and Lisa Moore who wrote, “Russell Wangersky’s Burning Down the House deals with horror and it’s aftermath, the nature of suffering and coming through. A haunting, shockingly honest and harrowing memoir about firefighting, unflinching and gorgeously written. Profoundly brave.”
From there it stormed across the country, awing critics and winning the country’s biggest cash award for a work of non-fiction, the $40,000 British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. It also bagged the Edna Staebler Award and the Drummer General’s award, among others, and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Non-fiction award, and was a Globe and Mail book of the Year.
Baltimore’s Mansion by Wayne Johnson
Baltimore’s Mansion is about the Johnstons of Ferryland, a Catholic colony founded by Lord Baltimore in the 1620s on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. It’s the story of three generations of fathers and sons. Noted for its lush language, and “a cast of stubborn, acerbic, yet irresistible family members,” it is an evocation of a time and a place reminiscent of Wayne Johnston’s best fiction.
It’s won the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction, as well as the prestigious Charles Taylor prize for literary non-fiction, and was a nominee for the Ambassador Book Award.
“Incredibly moving, deeply personal and often hilarious.”
—The Toronto Star
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