Born in Moscow, Masha Gessen spent their childhood in the Soviet Union before emigrating to the United States in 1981, but returned to Moscow a decade later to work as a journalist and activist. The dual American-Russian citizen, who moved back to the U.S. in 2013, has spent decades chronicling the rise of totalitarianism in Russia, and won the National Book Award in 2017 for The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. In Surviving Autocracy, which came out in 2020, the New Yorker staff writer uses their experience and insight to attempt to understand, and recover from, the recent rise of totalitarianism in the United States. Stirring and thought-provoking, Surviving Autocracy is essential reading.

Lawyer and writer Michelle Good, who is of Cree ancestry and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, has long been a powerful force in the work of Truth and Reconciliation. Her 2021 novel, Five Little Indians, was a national bestseller and won the Amazon First Novel Award, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Her new book, Truth Telling, is a collection of seven essays that explore the Canadian Indigenous experience, including racism, colonialism, self-determination, and the underlying myths of Canadian history, all filtered through Good’s extensive knowledge and experience.

Why are we so fascinated with con artists, and the art of the con? And why, considering how familiar we are with both, are we inclined to fall for a well-played swindle? Toronto writer Zoe Whittall, whose previous works have been nominated for the Giller Prize and won a Lambda Literary Award and the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize, sets up The Fake almost like a joke: “a con artist walks into a support group – chaos ensues.” But that’s just the beginning. The Fake is a smart, funny, and sharply wise book about the effect – and allure – of well-told lies, and the people who tell them.

From The Sisters Brothers,  a revisionist western, to the arch comedy of French Exit, Patrick deWitt has made a career of moving from genre to genre, delivering masterpieces as he goes. In The Librarianist, deWitt introduces readers to Bob Comet, a retired librarian in Portland, Ore. (where the Canadian author now lives), who begins to work at a senior’s centre to fill his empty days. As he gets to know the people, the reader gets to know Bob, the secrets of his past and his internal struggles. The Librarianist is a gentle novel about an ultimate introvert and relatable everyman.

Is there anything more terrifying than real estate right now? How about trying to find a good, reliable handyman to work on your new house? That’s the situation faced by a young family when they move into an unfinished development. Toronto writer Nick Cutter (the horror-writing pen name for Giller Prize-nominated Craig Davidson) and Hamilton, Ont., writer Andrew F. Sullivan join forces to create a bold, genuinely creepy new take on the haunted house story. Buckle up!

Terry Fallis, one of Canada’s favourite writers, returns with something of a departure: A New Season is the story of Jack McMaster, caught in the greying days of middle age, and suffering a loss from which he feels he may never recover. The novel, though, is about Jack’s journey back into the light – into a world of colour in Paris, which he has always dreamed of visiting. While demonstrating Fallis’ expected wit and humour, A New Season is also deeply emotional; a coming-of-age story for grown-ups, and perhaps Fallis’ most personal novel yet.

Frankie’s best friend has left her behind in a search for popularity and a great boyfriend. Martin has been left behind by his former friends, after his father lost everything in a bad real estate investment. Cara has left her past behind, living rough with her community of friends, stealing to survive. These three teenagers are drawn together when a party in a deserted house goes wrong, leaving one partygoer dead, and numerous mysteries to solve. Jo Treggiari, a Lunenburg, N.S.-based prize-winning author and bookseller, may have written Heartbreak Homes for young adults, but there’s enough great story and character development here to satisfy even the most discerning older readers.

Not only is Anna Porter a Canadian publishing legend and an officer of the Order of Canada, she is also a bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction. With her new book, Gull Island, Porter delivers a powerful psychological thriller set in Ontario cottage country. Returning to the family cottage on a remote Georgian Bay island to find her father’s will, Jude is confronted with the secrets of the past – her family’s, and her own. When she is cut off by the weather, the cottage begins to reveal its secrets, leaving Jude to fight for her life and her sanity. A real page-turner.