(This week I'm covering the International Festival of Authors in Toronto.)
It's safe to say that this week I've learned more about Canadian literature than I have in the 52 weeks preceding this one. It's very eye-opening to see exactly how much literature is going on here, and how little of it ever makes its way to the United States.
I'm flying today, so not a lot of time to run down some of the authors and publishers I've met and discovered up here, but I certainly will be writing more about this in the days and weeks to come.
For now, a couple more books by festival authors I'll be bringing back (sadly, this is a list limited by my finances and luggage-space):
- Galore
by Michael Crummey--Crummey lives in Newfoundland, which I've discovered is actually a place where some of Canada's most interesting writing is going on. This is somewhat atypical, since Newfoundland only joined Canada in the mid-20th century and long was perceived as a backwoods. There's a group of writers there now, I'm told, doing some interesting things with Newfoundland's place int he Canadian psyche, as well as the thick local mythology, lore, and oral tradition.
- New Lives
by Ingo Schulze--Schulze was originally from East Germany, and his work deals a lot with the relations between the east and west halves of Germany. This particular novel is set in 1990 in East Germany, and it's a very postmodern text (footnotes galore, fractured storytelling, etc.). Plus, the Review of Contemporary Fiction gave it a great review.
