I move around the side of the house. There is a thick mass of shrubs on the north-east side. Juniper, and caragana gone wild. Without thinking, I pluck a flower and put it into my mouth, savouring the delicate yellowness of its flavour. Now when did I learn to do that? Who first put a caragana blossom on my tongue?
Emma G. Weaver easily loses herself in history. She’s much more comfortable imagining the lives of the dead than getting involved with the living. She pushes down nagging questions about her own history, but when her Master’s research leads her from her safe and comfortable life in Edmonton, Alberta, back to the south shore of Nova Scotia, those questions can’t help but bubble to the surface. And Emma soon finds that the lives of the dead are inextricably linked to the lives of the living, that secrets don’t stay hidden forever—and that everything changes when they come to light.
Inspired by the true story of the notorious Goler clan of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, this work of contemporary Atlantic gothic fiction troubles the boundaries between myth and truth, villains and victims.
The main character is born in 1894. The book contains her memoir, so the action goes back and forth in time, including Emmeline’s childhood, through World War One and World War Two and up to “present day,” which is 1968-1969.
Insights into the geopolitical forces transforming the Atlantic world in the late 18th century, from economics and politics to religion, literature, music and material culture. Still available at a new low price, this is an excellent companion to our most recent title in the Planter Studies series, Nova Scotia Planters in the Atlantic World.
The latest original chapters in women’s studies from Atlantic Canada. While male policy-makers often “made it up” as they went along, an impressive number of women reformers, citizens and activists pushed for new ways of doing things. Fifteen contributors show how women in this region helped “make up” the modern state.
The early Maritime Provinces were at the centre of a struggle for supremacy in the Atlantic World – “ground zero in the battle of North America,” writes Jerry Banister of Dalhousie University. This is the latest in our classic series of Planter Studies on the social, economic, and cultural history of the region, reflecting the influence of the new “Atlantic World” scholarship while exploring the community structures, economies, loyalties, and religions of Planter Nova Scotia.
An original exploration of the relationship between people and the environment in Atlantic Canada, from the native-settler interactions of the 17th century to the presentday challenges of resource depletion and economic renewal. Major themes focus on how people have explained and understood the natural world, what we have learned from experiments in conservation and management, and how we have responded to environmental crisis and change. This wide-ranging collection features contributors from all four provinces and beyond, and is edited and introduced by Claire Campbell and Robert Summerby-Murray of Dalhousie University. The final chapter is an eloquent survey of the region’s environmental history by the distinguished historical geographer Graeme Wynn, University of British Columbia.
Allan Donaldson’s first novel, Maclean, was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Donaldson’s new novel is a literary mystery set in the fictional town of Wakefield, New Brunswick, against the backdrop of the Second World War. Following a night at The Silver Dollar dance hall, a teenage girl turns up dead in a gravel pit. The last person reported to have seen her is Owen Williams, an introverted soldier stationed with the local garrison of “Zombies”—conscripted men unwilling to serve overseas. When Lieutenant Bernard Dorkin, a young lawyer from Saint John, volunteers to defend Williams, whom he believes is innocent, he finds himself up against a theatrical local favourite leading the prosecution and a public mostly hell-bent on a foregone conclusion. The Case Against Owen Williams explores the potential for wrongful conviction and the gaps in the justice system that allow it to flourish.
Seventeen-year-old Early Okander lives with his father in a shack, a white family on the outskirts of the Halifax community of Africville. It is the early 1960s, and Early and his young friends, Toby and Chub, start to hear whispers that the city wants to move the residents of Africville out of their homes. As the three try to sort out what relocation might mean for the community, they also struggle to come to terms with their own problems: Early’s abuse at the hands of his father, Toby’s illness, Chub’s family breakdown.
Written from Early’s unique perspetive, Big Town is an unforgettable account of a community in crisis and the remarkable spirit that persists in the face of adversity.
Twenty-five years after the Great War, John Maclean is still struggling to carve out a meaningful existence in his small New Brunswick hometown.
One late summer day he embarks on a seemingly prosaic search for a little money, a little booze, and a birthday gift for his mother. But he’s haunted by memories—of war, of his cruel father, of opportunities wasted and lost—and each moment is shadowed by his bleak history. Shell-shocked and alcoholic, Maclean is divided between a lonely present and a violent past.
With clean and evocative prose, author Allan Donaldson exquisitely depicts a shattered war veteran’s search for peace. New edition.
Annie Welles is an officer with the Halifax Regional Police’s Robbery and Violent Crimes Unit. Recently divorced without custody of her two young sons, Annie’s career, too, is now stalling under the ambitions of her ruthless colleagues. When two murders occur within forty-eight hours of each other, she takes a risk to follow her intuition, hoping to prove herself.
John Taggart is a Scottish journalist looking to land the scoop that will secure his future. In Halifax to cover the Royal visit and a high-profile RCMP coup in a small coastal town, John has a chance to understand his mother’s connection to the province, which she has always kept hidden.
As both become wrapped up in the double homicide, they’re led to the small, picturesque town of Lunenburg and a thirty-year-old murder case with a long-buried secret. The town’s dark past holds the answers they both need, but uncovering it could prove more danger than it’s worth.